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A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 



A CAPTIVE 

ON 

A GERMAN RAIDER 



By 
F. G. Triyea 




NEW YORK 

Robert M. McBride ^ Company 

1918 




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Copyrisht 1918 \^ 
by 

ROBERT M. McBRIDE ST COMPANY 



Printed in the United States of America. 



Publisked October, 1918 

\m 13 i3i8 
©.CLA5 06543 

— l^x^ t I I 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 
I. 
II. 
III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 



fm 



PAGE 

I 

12 
26 

40 

53 
67 
81 

95 
III 

125 

139 



CHAPTER I 

THE S. S. "Hitachi Maru," 6,916 tons, 
of the Nippon Yushen Kaisha (Ja- 
pan Mail Steamship Co.) left Colom- 
bo on September twenty-fourth, 1917, her 
entire ship's company being Japanese. Once 
outside the breakwater the rough weather 
made itself felt, the ship rolled a good deal 
and the storms of wind and heavy rain con- 
tinued more or less all day. The next day 
the weather had moderated, and on the suc- 
ceeding day, Wednesday the twenty-sixth, 
fine and bright weather prevailed, but the 
storm had left behind a long rolling swell. 

My wife and I had joined the ship at Singa- 
pore on the fifteenth, having left Bangkok, 
the capital of Siam, a week earlier. Passen- 
gers who had embarked at Colombo were be- 
ginning to recover from their seasickness, 
and had begun to indulge in deck games, and 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

there seemed every prospect of a pleasant 
and undisturbed voyage to Delagoa Bay, 
where we were due on October seventh. 

The chart at noon on the twenty-sixth 
marked five hundred and eight miles from 
Colombo, two thousand, nine hundred and 
twelve to Delagoa Bay, and one hundred and 
ninety to the Equator ; only position, not the 
course, being marked after the ship left Co- 
lombo. Most of the passengers had, as usual, 
either dozed on the deck or in their cabins 
after tiffin, my wife and I being in deck chairs 
on the port side. When I woke up at one 
forty-five I saw far off on the horizon on the 
port bow, smoke from a steamer. I was the 
only person awake on the deck at the time, 
and I believe no other passenger had seen 
the smoke. 

It was so far away that it was impossible 
to tell whether we were meeting or overtak- 
ing the ship. Immediately thoughts of a 
raider sprang to my mind, though I did not 
know one was out. It is generally under- 
stood tliat instructions to Captains in these 
times are to suspect every vessel seen at sea, 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

and to run away from all signs of smoke. The 
officer on the bridge with his glass must have 
seen the smoke long before I did, so my sus- 
picions of a raider were gradually disarmed 
as we did not alter our course a single point, 
but proceeded to meet the stranger whose 
course towards us formed a diagonal one 
with ours. If nothing had happened she 
would have crossed our track slightly astern 
of us. 

But something did happen. More passen- 
gers were now awake, discussing the nation- 
ality of the ship bearing down on us. Still 
no alteration was made in our course, and 
we and she had made no sign of recognition. 
Surely, everything was all right, and there 
was nothing to fear. Even the Japanese 
commander of the gun crew betrayed no 
anxiety in the matter, but stood with the 
passengers on the deck watching the oncom- 
ing stranger. Five bells had just gone when 
the vessel, then about seven hundred yards 
away from us, took a sudden turn to port and 
ran up signals and the German Imperial Navy 
flag. There was no longer any doubt — the 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

worst had happened. We had walked blindly 
into the open arms of the enemy. The sig- 
nals were to tell us to stop. We did not 
stop. The raider fired two shots across our 
bows. They fell into the sea quite close to 
where most of the passengers were standing. 
Still we did not stop. It was wicked to ig- 
nore these orders and warnings. Most of 
the passengers went to their cabins for life- 
belts and life-saving waistcoats, and at once 
returned to the deck watching the raider. As 
we were still steaming and had not obeyed 
the order to stop, the raider opened fire on us, 
firing a broadside. 

While the firing was going on, a seaplane 
appeared above the raider; some assert that 
she dropped bombs in front of us, but per- 
sonally I did not see this. 

The greatest alarm now prevailed on our 
ship. My wife and I returned to our cabin to 
fetch an extra pair of spectacles, our pass- 
ports and my pocketbook, and at the same 
time picked up her jewel case. The alleyway 
between the companion-way and our cabin 
was by this time strewn with sp-linters of 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 



wood, glass and wreckage; pieces of shell 
had been embedded in the panelling, and a 
large hole had been made in the funnel. 

We returned once more to the port deck 
where most of the first class passangers had 
assembled waiting for orders — which never 
came. No instructions came from the Cap- 
tain or officers or crew; in fact, we never 
saw any of the ship's officers until long after 
all the lifeboats were afloat on the sea. 

The ship had now stopped and the firing 
had apparently ceased, but we did not know 
whether it would recommence, and of course 
imagined the Germans were firing to sink the 
ship. It was useless trying to escape the 
shots, as we did not know then at what part 
of the ship the Germans were firing, so there 
was only one thing for the passengers to do 
— to leave the ship, as we all thought she was 
sinking. Some of the passengers attempted 
to go on the bridge to get on the boat deck 
and help lower the boats, as it seemed noth- 
ing was being done, but were ordered back 
by the Second Steward, who, apparently 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

alone among the ship's officers, kept his head 
throughout. 

The number one boat was now being low- 
ered on the port side ; it was full of Japanese 
and Asiatics. When it was flush with the 
deck the falls broke, the boat capsized, and 
with all its occupants was thrown into the 
sea. One or two, we afterwards heard, were 
drowned. The passengers now went over to 
the starboard side, as apparently no more 
boats were being lowered from the port side, 
and we did not know whether the raider 
would start firing again. The number one 
starboard boat was being lowered; still there 
was no one to give orders. The passengers 
themselves saw to it that the women got into 
this boat first, and helped them in, only the 
Second Steward standing by to help. The 
women had to climb the rail and gangway 
which was lashed thereto, and the boat was 
so full of gear and tackle that at first it was 
quite impossible for anyone to find a seat in 
the boat. It was a difficult task for an}'- 
woman to get into this boat ; my wife fell in, 
and in so doing dropped her jewel case out 

6 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

of her handbag" into the bottom of the boat, 
and it was seen no more that day. The hus- 
bands followed their wives into the boat and 
several other men among the first-class pas- 
sengers also clambered in. 

Directly after the order to lower away was 
given, and before anyone could settle in the 
boat the stern falls broke, and for a second 
the boat hung from the bow falls vertically, 
the occupants hanging on to anything they 
could. Then, immediately afterwards, the 
the bow falls broke, or were cut, and the boat 
dropped into the water and righted itself. 
We were still alongside the ship when an- 
other boat was swung out and lowered im- 
mediately on to our heads. We managed to 
push off just in time before the other boat, 
the falls of which also broke, reached the 
water. 

Thus, there had been no preparation made 
for accidents — we might have been living in 
the times of profoundest peace for all the 
trouble that had been taken to see that every- 
thing was ready in case of accident. Some 
passengers had asked for boat drill when the 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

ship left Singapore, but were told there was 
no need for it, or for any preparations till 
after Cape Town, which, alas! never was 
reached. Accordingly passengers had no 
places given to them in the boats, the boats 
were not ready, and confusion instead of 
order prevailed. It was nothing short of a 
miracle that more people were not drowned. 
If the ship had only stopped when ordered 
by signals to do so, there would have been no 
firing at all. Even if she had stopped after 
the warning shots had been fired no more fir- 
ing would have taken place, and nobody need 
have left the ship at all. It seemed too, at 
the time, that if only the "Hitachi" had 
turned tail and bolted directly the "Wolfs" 
smoke was seen on the horizon by the officer 
on watch on the bridge — at the latest, this 
must have been about one-thirty — she might 
have escaped altogether, as she was a much 
quicker boat than the "Wolf." At any rate, 
she might have tried. Her fate would have 
been no worse if she had failed to escape — 
for surely even the Germans could not deny 
any ship the right to escape if she could efifect 

8 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

it. Certainly the seaplane might have taken 
up the chase, and ordered the "Hitachi" to 
stop. We heard afterwards that one ship 
— the "Laruna," from New Zealand to San 
Francisco — had been caught in this way. The 
seaplane had hovered over her and dropped 
messages on her deck ordering her to follow 
the plane to a concealed harbor near by, fail- 
ing which, bombs would be dropped to blow 
up the ship. Needless to say, the ship fol- 
lowed these instructions. 

"There was no panic, and the women were 
splendid" — how often one has read that in 
these days of atrocity at sea! We were to 
realize it now, the women were indeed splen- 
did. There was no crying or screaming or 
hysteria, or wild enquiries. They were per- 
fectly calm and collected, none of them 
showed the least fear, even under fire. 

As we thought the ship was slowly sinking, 
we pushed oil from her side as quickly as 
possible. There were now four lifeboats in 
the water at some distance from each other. 
The one in which we were contained about 
twenty-four persons. There was no officer 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

or member of the crew with us, while another 
boat contained officers and sailors only. No 
one in our boat knew where we were to go, 
or what we were to do. One passenger wild- 
ly suggested that we should hoist a sail and 
set sail for Colombo, two days' steaming 
away ! Search was made for provisions and 
water in our boat, but she was so full of peo- 
ple and impedimenta that nothing could be 
found. It was found, however, that water 
was rapidly coming into the boat, and before 
long it reached to our knees. The hole which 
should have been plugged could not be found, 
so for more than an hour some of the men 
took turns at pulling and baling the water 
out with their sun-helmets. This was very 
hot work, as it must be remembered we were 
not far from the Equator. Ultimately, how- 
ever, the hole was found and plugged. An 
Irish Tommy going home from Singapore 
was in our boat. He was most cheerful and 
in every way helpful, working hard and pull- 
ing all the time. It was he who plugged the 
hole, and as he was almost the only one 
among us who seemed to have any useful 

10 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

knowledge about the management of life- 
boats, we were very glad to reckdn !him 
among our company. 

The four boats were now drifting aimless- 
ly about over the sea, when an order was 
shouted to us, apparently from a Japanese 
officer in one of the other boats, to tie up 
with the other three boats. After some time 
this was accomplished and the four boats in 
line drifted on the water. The two steamers 
had stopped, so we did not know what was 
happening on board either of them, but saw 
the raider's motor-launch going between her 
and her prize, and picking up some of the 
men who had fallen into the sea when the 
boat capsized. Luckily, the sharks with 
which these waters are infested had been 
scared off by the gunfire. We realized, 
when we were in the lifeboats, what a heavy 
swell there was on the sea, as both steamers 
were occasionally hidden from us when we 
were in the trough of the waves. There was 
no one in command of any of the boats, and 
we simply waited to see what was going to 
happen. 

II 



CHAPTER II 

ESCAPE in any way was obviously out 
of the question. At last the raider got 
under way and began to bear down on 
us. Most of us thought that the end had 
come and that we were up against an apostle 
of the "sink the ship and leave no trace" 
theory — which we had read about in Colombo 
only a couple of days before — the latest de- 
velopment of frightfulness. Our minds were 
not made easier by the seaplane circling 
above us, ready, as we thought, to administer 
the final blow to any v/ho might survive be- 
ing fired on by the raider's guns. It was a 
most anxious moment for us all, and opinions 
were very divided as to what was going to 
happen. One of the ladies remarked that she 
had no fear, and reminded us that we were 
all in God's hands, which cheered up some 
of the drooping hearts and anxious minds. 

12 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

Certainly most of us thought we were soon 
to look our last upon the world — what other 
thoughts were in our minds as we imagined 
our last moments were so near, will remain 
unrecorded. 

However, to our intense relief, nothing of 
the sort happened, and as the raider came 
slowly nearer to us, an officer on the bridge 
megaphoned us to come alongside. This we 
did; three boats went astern, and the one in 
which we were remained near the raider's 
bows. An officer appeared at the bulwarks 
and told us to come aboard; women first, 
then their husbands, then the single men. 
There was no choice but to obey, but we all 
felt uneasy in our minds as to what kind of 
treatment our women were to receive at the 
hands of the Germans on board. 

The ship was rolling considerably, and it is 
never a pleasant or easy task for a lands- 
man, much less a landswoman, to clamber up 
a rope ladder some twenty feet up the side of 
a rolling ship. However, all the ladies acquit- 
ted themselves nobly, some even going up 
without a rope round their waists. The little 

13 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

Japanese stewardess, terrified, but showing 
a brave front to the enemy, was the last 
woman to go up before the men*s ascent 
began. Two German sailors stood at the bul- 
warks to help us off the rope ladder into the 
well deck forward, and by five-twenty we 
were all aboard, after having spent a very 
anxious two hours, possibly the most anxious 
in the lives of most of us. 

It was at once evident, directly we got on 
board, that we were in for kindly treatment. 
The ship's doctor came forward, saluted, and 
asked who was wounded and required his at- 
tention. Most of the passengers — there were 
only twenty first, and about a dozen second 
class — were in our boat. Among the second 
class passengers with us were a few Portu- 
guese soldiers going from Macao to Delagoa 
Bay. 

Some of us were slightly bruised, and all 
were shaken, but luckily none required medi- 
cal treatment. Chairs were quickly found 
for the ladies, the men seated themselves on 
the hatch, and the Gernian sailors busied 
themselves bringing tea and cigarettes to 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

their latest captives. We were then left to 
ourselves for a short time on deck, and just 
before dark, a spruce young Lieutenant came 
up to me, saluted, and asked me to tell all the 
passengers that v^^e w^ere to follow him and 
go aft. We followed him along the ship, 
which seemed to be very crowded, to the well 
deck aft, where we met the remaining few 
passengers and some of the crew of the "Hi- 
tachi." 

We had evidently come across a new type 
of Hun. The young Lieutenant was most po- 
lite and courteous and attentive. He apolo- 
gized profusely for the discomfort which the 
ladies and ourselves would have to put up 
with — "But it is war, you know, and your 
Government is to blame for allowing you to 
travel when they know a raider is out" — as- 
sured us he would do what he could to make 
us as comfortable as possible, and that we 
should not be detained more than three or 
four days. This was the first of a countless 
number of Hes told us by the Germans as to 
their intentions concerning us. 

We had had nothing to eat since tiffin, so 

15 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

we were ordered below to the 'tween decks. 
We clambered down a ladder to partake of 
our first meal as prisoners. What a contrast 
to the last meal we enjoyed on the "Hitachi," 
taken in comfort and apparent security! 
(But, had we known it, we were doomed even 
then, for the raider's seaplane had been up 
and seen us at eleven a. m., had reported our 
position to the raider, and announced three 
p. m. as the time for our capture. Our cap- 
tors were not far out ! It was between two- 
thirty and three when we were taken.) The 
meal consisted of black bread and raw ham, 
with hot tea served out of a tin can. We sat 
around on wooden benches, and noticed that 
the crockery on which the food was served 
had been taken from other ships captured — 
one of the Burns Philp Line, and one of the 
Union Steamship Compan)^ of New Zealand. 
Some of the Japanese officers and crew were 
also in the 'tween decks — later on the Japan- 
ese Captain appeared, (we had not seen him 
since he left the saloon after tiffin) and he 
was naturally very down and distressed — 
and some of the German sailors came and 

i6 



v'U CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 



spoke to us. Later on the young Lieutenant 
came down and explained why the raider, 
which the German sailors told us was the 
"Wolf," had fired on us. We then learnt for 
the first time that many persons had been 
killed outright by the firing — another direct 
result of the "Hitachi's" failure to obey the 
raider's orders to stop. It was impossible to 
discover how many. There must have been 
about a dozen, as the total deaths numbered 
sixteen, all Japanese or Indians; the latest 
deaths from wounds occurred on October 
twenty-eighth, while one or two died while 
we were on the "Wolf." The Lieutenant, 
who we afterwards learnt was in charge of 
the prisoners, told us that the "Wolf" had 
signalled us to stop, and not to use our wire- 
less or our guns, for the "Hitachi" mounted 
a gun on her poop for the submarine zone. 
He asserted that the "Hitachi" hoisted a sig- 
nal that she understood the order, but that 
she tried to use her wireless, that she brought 
herself into position to fire on the "Wolf" 
and that preparations were being made to 
use her gun. 

17 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

The Germans professed deep regret at this, 
and at the loss o£ life caused, the first occa- 
sion on which lives had been lost since the 
"Wolfs" cruise began. The "Wolf," how- 
ever, they said, had no choice but to fire and 
put the "Hitachi's" gun out of action. This 
she failed to do, as the shooting was distinct- 
ly poor, with the exception of the shot aimed 
at the wireless room, which went straight 
through without exploding there or touching 
the operator, and exploded near the funnel, 
killing most of the crew who were running to 
"help lower the boats. The other shots had 
all struck the ship in the second-class quar- 
ters astern. One had gone right through the 
cabin of the Second Steward, passing just 
over his bunk — where he had been asleep a 
minute before — and through the side of the 
ship. Others had done great damage to the 
ship's structure aft, but none had gone any 
where near the gun or ammunition-house on 
the poop. I saw afterwards some photos the 
Germans had taken of the gun, as they said 
they found it when they went on boards 
These photos showed the gun with the breech 

i8 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

Open, thus proving, so the Germans said, that 
the Japanese had been preparing to use the 
gun. In reality, of course, it proved nothing 
of the sort; it is more than likely that the 
Germans opened the breech themselves be- 
fore they took the photograph, as they had to 
produce some evidence to justify their firing 
on the "Hitachi." But w^hether the Japan- 
ese opened the gun breech and prepared to 
use the gun or not, it is quite certain that the 
"Hitachi" never fired a shot at the "Wolf," 
though the Germans have since asserted that 
she did so. It was indeed very lucky for us 
that she did not fire — ^had she done so and 
even missed the "Wolf," it is quite certain 
the "Wolf" would have torpedoed the "Hi- 
tachi" and sent us to the bottom. 

It was very hot in the 'tween decks, and 
after our meal we were all allowed to go on 
deck for some fresh air. About eight o'clock, 
however, the single men of military age were 
again sent below for the night, while the 
married couples and a few sick and elderly 
men were allowed to remain on deck. It was 
a, cool moonlight night, and armed guards 

19 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

patrolled the deck all night. We had nothing 
but what we stood up in, so we lay down in 
chairs as we were, and that night slept, or 
rather did not sleep, under one of the 
'Wolf's" guns. Throughout the night we 
were steaming gently, and from time to time 
we saw the "Hitachi" still afloat, and steam- 
ing along at a considerable distance from us. 
Soon after daybreak next morning, the men 
were allowed to go aft under the poop for a 
wash, with a very limited supply of water, 
and the ladies had a portion of the 'tween 
decks to themselves for a short time. The 
Commander sent down a message conveying 
his compliments to the ladies, saying he 
hoped they had had a good night and were 
none the worse for their experiences. He as- 
sured us all that we should be in no danger on 
his ship and that he would do what he could 
to make us as comfortable as possible under 
the circumstances. But, we were reminded 
again, this was war. Indeed it was, and we 
had good reason to know it now, even if the 
war had not tousched us closely before. 
Breakfast, consisting of black bread, canned 

20 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

meat and tea, was then brought to us on 
deck by the German sailors, and we were left 
to ourselves on the well deck for some time. 
There seemed to be literally hundreds of 
prisoners on and under the poop, and the 
whole ship, as far as we could see, presented 
a scene of the greatest activity. Smiths 
were at work on the well deck, hammering 
and cutting steel plates with which to repair 
the "Hitachi," mechanics Avere working at 
the seaplane, called the "Wolfchen," which 
was kept on the well deck between her 
flights; prisoners were exercising on the 
poop, and the armed guards were patrolling 
constantly among them and near us on the 
well deck. The guards wore revolvers and 
side-arms, but did not appear at all particu- 
lar in the matter of uniform. Names of vari- 
ous ships appeared on their caps, some had 
on them only the words "Kaiserliche Ma- 
rine." Some were barefoot, some wore sing- 
lets and shorts, while some even dispensed 
with the former. Most of the crew at work 
wore only shorts, and, as one of the lady 
prisoners remarked, the ship presented a 

21 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

rather unusual exhibition of the European 
male torso! 

Some German officers came aft to interro- 
gate us ; they were all courteous and sympa- 
thetic, and I took the opportunity of men- 
tioning to the young Lieutenant the loss of 
my wife's jewels in the lifeboat, and he as- 
sured me he would have the boat searched, 
and if the jewels were found they should be 
restored. 

The Japanese dhobi had died from wounds 
during the night and was buried in the morn- 
ing, nearly all the German officers, from the 
Commander downwards, attending in full 
uniform. The Japanese Captain and officers 
also attended, and some kind of funeral serv- 
ice in Japanese was held. 

Officers and men were very busy on the 
upper deck — we were much impressed by the 
great number of men on board — and we no- 
ticed a lady prisoner, a little girl, evidently a 
great pet with the German sailors and offi- 
cers, some civilian prisoners and some mili- 
tary prisoners in khaki on the upper deck, 
but we were not allowed to communicate 

22 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

witli them. There were also a few Tommies 
in khaki among the prisoners aft. It was 
very hot on the well deck, and for some hours 
we had no shelter from the blazing sun. Lat- 
er on, a small awning was rigged up and we 
got a little protection, and one or two para- 
sols were forthcoming for the use of the 
ladies. During the morning the sailors were 
allowed to bring us cooling drinks from time 
to time, and both officers and men did all they 
could to render our position as bearable as 
possible. The men amongst us were also al- 
lowed to go to the ship's canteen and buy 
smokes. We were steaming gently in a 
westerly direction all day, occasionally pass- 
ing quite close to some small islands and 
banks of sand, a quite picturesque scene. The 
sea was beautifully calm and blue, and on the 
shores of these banks, to which we sailed 
quite close, the water took on colors of ex- 
quisite hues of the palest and tenderest blue 
and green, as it rippled gently over coral and 
golden sands. 

Tiffin, consisting of rice, bacon and beans 
was dealt out to us on deck at midday, and 

33 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 



the afternoon passed in the same way as the 
morning. The "Wolf's" chief officer, a hear- 
ty, elderly man came aft to speak to us. He 
chaffed us about our oarsmanship in the life- 
boats, saying the appearance of our oars 
wildly waving reminded him of the sails of a 
windmill. "Never use your wireless or your 
gun," he said, "and you'll come to no harm 
from a German raider." 

By about five o'clock the two ships arrived 
in an atoll, consisting of about fifteen small 
islands, and the "Hitachi" there dropped an- 
chor. The "Wolf" moved up alongside, and 
the two ships were lashed together. Supper, 
consisting of tinned fruit and rice was served 
out at five-thirty and we were then told that 
the married couples and one or two elderly 
men were to return to the "Hitachi" that 
night. So with some difficulty we clambered 
from the upper deck of the "Wolf" to the 
boat deck of the "Hitachi" and returned to 
find our cabins just as we had left them in a 
great hurry the day before. We had not ex- 
pected to go on board the "Hitachi" again, 
and never thought we should renew acquain- 

24 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

tance with our personal belongings. We our- 
selves were particularly sad about this as we 
had brought away from Siam after twenty 
years' residence there, many things which 
would be quite irreplaceable. We were 
therefore very glad to know they were not 
all lost to us. But we congratulated our- 
selves that the greater part of our treasures 
gathered there had been left behind safely 
stored in the bank and in a go-down in Bang- 
kok. 



25 



CHAPTER III 

THE "Hitachi" was now a German 
ship, the Prize Captain was in com- 
mand, and German sailors replaced 
the Japanese, who had all been transferred 
to the "Wolf." The German Captain spoke 
excellent English and expressed a wish to do 
all he could to make us as comfortable on 
board as we had been before. There was of 
course considerable confusion on board, and 
we found next morning that the bathrooms 
and lavatories were not in working order. 
This state of affairs prevailed for the next 
few days, and the men passengers themselves 
had to do what was necessary in these quar- 
ters and haul sea-water aboard. The next 
morning the transference of coal, cargo, and 
ship's stores from the "Hitachi" to the 
"Wolf" began, and went on without cessa- 
tion for the next five days. One of the Ger- 

26 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

man officers came over and took photos of 
the passengers in groups, and others fre- 
quently took snapshots of various incidents 
and of each other on different parts of the 
ship. 

We know now that we were then anchored 
in a British possession, one of the Southern- 
most groups of the Maldive Islands. Some 
of the islands were inhabited, and small sail- 
ing boats came out to the "Wolf," presum- 
ably with provisions of some kind. We were 
of course not allowed to speak to any of the 
islanders who came alongside the "Wolf," 
and were not allowed alongside the "Hi- 
tachi." On one occasion even, the doctor of 
the "Wolf" went in the ship's motor-launch 
to one of the islands to attend the wife of 
one of the native chiefs ! On the next day — 
the twenty-eighth — all the "Hitachi's" pas- 
sengers returned on board her, and at the 
same time some of the Japanese stewards 
returned, but they showed no inclination to 
work as formerly. Indeed, the German offi- 
cers had no little difficulty in dealing with 
them. They naturally felt very sore at the 

27 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

deaths of so many of their countrymen at the 
hands of the Germans, and they did as little 
work as possible. 

With their usual thoroughness the Ger- 
mans one day examined all our passports 
and took notes of our names, ages, profes- 
sions, maiden names of married ladies, ad- 
dresses, and various other details. One 
young man who had on his passport his 
photo taken in military uniform was, how- 
ever, detained on the ''Wolf" as a military 
prisoner. He was asked by a German officer 
if he were going home to fight. He replied 
that he certainly was and pluckily added, "I 
wish I were fighting now." 

On October first the married prisoners 
from the "Wolf," together with three Aus- 
tralian civilian prisoners over military age, a 
Colonel of the Australian A. M. C., a Major 
of the same Corps, with his wife, an Austra- 
lian stewardess, some young boys, and a few 
old mates and sea-captains were sent on 
board the "Hitachi." They had all been taken 
ofif earlier prizes captured and sunk by the 
"Wolf." The Australians had been captured 

28 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

on August sixth from the S.S. "Matunga," 
from Sydney to what was formerly German 
New Guinea, from which latter place they 
had been only a few hours distant. An Amer- 
ican captain, with his wife and little girl, had 
been captured on the barque "Beluga," from 
San Francisco to Newcastle, N. S. W., on 
July ninth, both of these ships having been 
sunk by the Germans. All the passengers 
transferred were given cabins on board the 
"Hitachi." We learnt from these passengers 
that the "Wolf" was primarily a mine-layer, 
that she had laid mines at Cape Town, Bom- 
bay, Colombo and off the Australian and New 
Zealand coasts. She had sown her last crop 
of mines, one hundred and ten in number, off 
the approaches to Singapore before she pro- 
ceeded to the Indian Ocean to lie in wait for 
the "Hitachi." Altogether she had sown five 
hundred mines. 

During her stay in the Maldives the 
"Wolf" sent up her seaplane — or, as the Ger- 
mans said "the bird" — every morning about 
six, and she returned about eight. Every- 
thing was apparently all clear, and the 

29 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

"Wolf" evidently anticipated no interference 
or unwelcome attention from any of our 
cruisers. Two of them, the "Venus" and the 
"Doris," we had seen at anchor in Colombo 
harbor during our stay there, but it was ap- 
parently thought not worth while to send 
any escort with the "Hitachi," though the 
value of her cargo was said to run into mil- 
lions sterling; and evidently the convoy sys- 
tem had not yet been adopted in Eastern 
waters. 

The "Wolf" remained alongside us till the 
morning of October third, when she sailed 
away at daybreak, leaving us anchored in the 
center of the atoll. It was a great relief to 
us when she departed; she kept all the breeze 
off our side of the ship, so that the heat in 
our cabin was stifling, and it was in addition 
very dark; the noise of coaling and shifting 
cargo was incessant, and the roaring of the 
water between the two ships most disturb- 
ing. Before she sailed away the Prize Cap- 
tain handed to my wife most of her jewels 
which had been recovered from the bottom of 
our lifeboat. As many of these were Siamese 

30 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

jewelry and unobtainable now, we were very- 
rejoiced to obtain possession of them again, 
but many rings were missing and were never 
recovered. 

The falls of the lifeboats were all renewed, 
and on October fifth we had places assigned 
to us in the lifeboats, and rules and regula- 
tions were drawn up for the "detained enemy 
subjects" on board the "Hitachi." They were 
as follows: — 

RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR ON 
BOARD THE GERMAN AUXILIARY 
SHIP "HITACHI MARU" DE- 
TAINED ENEMY SUBJECTS 

1. Everybody on board is under martial law 

and any offence is liable to be punished 
by same. 

2. All orders given by the Commander, First 

Officer or any of the German crew on 
duty are to be strictly obeyed. 

3. After the order "Schiff abblenden" every 

evening at sunset no lights may be 
shown on deck or through portholes 
etc. that are visible from outside. 

31 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

4. The order "Allemann in die Boote" will be 

made known by continuous ringing of 
the ship's bell and sounding the gongs. 
Everybody hurries to his boat with the 
lifebelt and leaves the ship. Every- 
body is allowed to take one small bag 
preciously packed. 

5. Nobody is allowed to go on the boatdeck 

beyond the smokeroom. All persons liv- 
ing in first class cabins are to stay amid- 
ships and are not allowed to go aft 
without special permission; all persons 
living aft are to stay aft. 

6. The Japanese crew is kept only for the 

comfort of the one time passengers and 
is to be treated considerately as they 
are also d. e. s. 

7. The d. e. s. are not allowed to talk with 

the crew. 

At sea, October 6th, 1917. 
Kommando S.M.H. ''Hitachi Maru" 

C. ROSE, 
Lt.z.See & Kommandant. 

32 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

Lieutenant Rose very kindly told me that 
as I was leaving the East for good and there- 
fore somewhat differently situated from the 
other passengers, he would allow me to take 
in the lifeboat, in addition to a handbag, a 
cabin trunk packed with the articles from 
Siam I most wanted to save. 

It was evident from this that the Germans 
intended sinking the ship if we came across 
a British or Allied war vessel. We were of 
course unarmed, as the Germans had re- 
moved the "Hitachi's" gun to the "Wolf," 
but the German Captain anticipated no dif- 
ficulty on this score, and assured me that it 
was the intention of the Commander of the 
"Wolf" that we should be landed in a short 
time with all our baggage at a neutral port 
with a stone pier. We took this to mean a 
port in either Sumatra or Java — and we were 
buoyed up with this hope for quite a consid- 
erable time. But, alas! like many more of 
the assurances given to us, it was quite un- 
true. 

There were now on board one hundred and 
thirty-one souls, of whom twenty-nine were 

33 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

passengers. On Saturday, October sixth, the 
seaplane returned in the afternoon and re- 
mained about half an hour, when she again 
flew away. She brought a message of evi- 
dently great importance, for whereas it had 
been the intention of our Captain to sail away 
on the following afternoon, he weighed an- 
chor the next morning, and left the atoll. He 
had considerable trouble with the anchor be- 
fore starting, and did not get away till nearly 
eight o'clock, instead of at daybreak. Evi- 
dently something was coming to visit the 
atoll ; though it was certain nothing could be 
looking for us, as our capture could not then 
have been known, and there could have been 
no communication between the Maldives and 
Ceylon or the mainland. The ship was 
cleaned and put in order, the cargo properly 
stowed, and the bunkers trimmed by the Ger- 
man crew, aided by some neutrals who had 
been taken prisoner from other ships before 
and for some days after we sailed. Some of 
the sailors among the prize crew were good 
enough to give us some pieces of the "Wolf's" 
shrapnel found on the "Hitachi," relics which 

34 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

were eagerly sought after by the passengers. 
The passengers were now under armed 
guards, but were at perfect liberty to do as 
they pleased, and the relations between them 
and the German officers and crew were quite 
friendly. Deck games were indulged in as 
before our capture, and the German Captain 
took part in them. Time, nevertheless, hung 
heavily on our hands, but many a pleasant 
hour was spent in the saloon with music and 
singing. One of the Australian prisoners was 
a very good singer and pianist, and provided 
very enjoyable entertainment for us. On 
Sunday evenings, after the six o'clock "sup- 
per," a small party met in the saloon to sing 
a few favorite hymns, each one choosing the 
ones he or she liked best. This little gather- 
ing was looked forward to by those who took 
part in it, as it formed a welcome break in the 
ordinary monotonous life on board. 

The only Japanese left on board were some 
stewards, cooks, and the stewardess. A 
German chief mate and chief engineer re- 
placed the Japanese, and other posts previ- 
ously held by the Japanese were filled by Ger- 

35 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

mans and neutrals. The times of meals were 
changed, and we no longer enjoyed the good 
meals we had had before our capture, as 
most of the good food had been transferred 
to the "Wolf." Chota hazri was done away 
with, except for the ladies ; the mfeals became 
much simpler, menus were no longer neces- 
sary, and the Japanese cooks took no more 
trouble with the preparation of the food. 

However, on the whole we were not so 
badly off, though on a few occasions there 
was really not enough to eat, and some of the 
meat was tainted, as the freezing apparatus 
had got out of order soon after the ship was 
captured. 

We steamed gently on a southwesterly 
course for about five days, and on the suc- 
ceeding day, October twelfth, changed our 
course many times, going northeast at six- 
thirty a. m., southeast at twelve-thirty p. m., 
northeast again at four p. m., and north at 
six-thirty p. m., evidently waiting for some- 
thing and killing time, as we were going 
dead slow all day. The next morning we had 
stopped entirely, and sig'hted smoke at ten- 

36 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

twenty a. m. — it was, of course, the "Wolf," 
met by appointment at that particular time 
and place. She came abreast of us about 
eleven-twenty a. m. and we sailed on paral- 
lel courses for the rest of the day. She was 
unaccompanied by a new prize, and we were 
glad to think she had been unsuccessful in 
her hunt for further prey. She remained in 
company with us all next day, Sunday, and 
about five p.m. moved closer up, and after 
an exchange of signals we both changed 
courses and the "Wolf" sheered off, and to 
our great relief we saw her no more for sev- 
eral days. There was always the hope that 
when away from us she would be seen and 
sunk by an Allied cruiser, and always the 
fear that when she came back to us we might 
again be put on board her. The Germans 
seemed to have a perfect mania for taking 
photographs — we were of course not allowed 
to take any and cameras were even taken 
away from us — and one day Lieut. Rose 
showed me photos of various incidents of the 
"Wolfs" cruise, including those of the sink- 
ings of various ships. (I saw, too, on this 

37 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

day a photo of the "Hitachi" flying the Ger- 
man flag and one showing the damage sus- 
tained by Her from the "Wolf's" firing. There 
were ugly holes in the stern quarters, but all 
above the water-line.) The German officers 
would take with them to Germany hundreds 
of pictures giving a complete photographic 
record of the "Wolf's" expedition. 

We cruised about again after the "Wolf" 
had left us for a couple of days, and on the 
seventeenth were stationary all day. Sev- 
eral sharks were seen around the ship, afid 
the German sailors caught two or three fair- 
ly large ones during the day and got them on 
board. On the eighteenth the sea was rough 
and we were gently steaming to keep the 
ship's head to the seas, and on the following 
day we again changed our course many times. 
Saturday morning, October twentieth, again 
saw the "Wolf" in sight at six-thirty. She 
was still alone, and we proceeded on parallel 
courses, passing about midday a few white 
reefs with breakers sweeping over them. 
Shortly afterwards we came in sight of many 
other reefs, and at two p. m. we anchored, 

38 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

and the "Wolf" tied up alongside us within 
a snug and sheltered spot. We were almost 
surrounded by large and small coral reefs, 
against which we could see and hear the 
breakers dashing. It was a beautiful anchor- 
age, and the waters were evidently well 
known to the Germans. Some of the sea- 
faring men amongst us told us we were in 
the Cargados Carajos Reef, southeast of the 
Seychelles, and that we were anchored near 
the Nazareth Bank. 



39 



CHAPTER IV. 

O confident did the Germans feel of 
their security that they stayed in this 
neighborhood from October twentieth 
to November seventh, only once — on October 
twenty-eighth — moving a few hundred yards 
away from their original anchorage, and al- 
though a most vigilant lookout was kept 
from the crow's nest on the "Wolf," the sea- 
plane was not sent up once to scout during 
the whole of that time. Coal, cargo and 
stores were transferred from the ''Hitachi" 
to the "Wolf," and the work went on day and 
night with just as much prospect of interfer- 
ence as there would have been if the "Wolf" 
had been loading cargo from a wharf in 
Hamburg in peace time. The coolness and 
impudence of the whole thing amazed us. 

But one day, October twenty-second, was 
observed as a holiday. It was Lieutenant 

40 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

Rose's birthday, and, incidentally, the Kaiser- 
in's also. So no loading or coaling was done, 
but the band on the "Wolf"— most of the 
members with the minimum of clothing and 
nearly all with faces and bodies black with 
coaldust — lined up and gave a musical per- 
formance of German patriotic airs. 

Every day we looked, but in vain, for signs 
of help in the shape of a friendly cruiser, but 
the Germans proceeded with their high-seas 
robbery undisturbed and unalarmed. The 
"Hitachi" had a valuable cargo of rubber, tea, 
tin, copper, antimony, hides, cocoanut and 
general stores, and it was indeed maddening 
to see all these cases marked for Liverpool 
and London being transferred to the capa- 
cious maw of the "Wolf for the use of our 
enemies. 

On October twenty-eighth a Japanese 
sailor wounded at the time of the "Hitachi's" 
capture, died on the "Wolf." This was the 
last death from wounds inflicted on that day. 
His body was brought over to the "Hitachi" 
— once again all the German officers from the 
Commander downwards, including the two 

41 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

doctors, appeared in full uniform to attend 
the funeral service. The Japanese Captain 
and officers also came over from the "Wolf," 
and the body vv^as committed to the sea from 
the poop of the "Hitachi." 

Various rumors came into circulation about 
this time as to v^^hat v^^as to happen to us. 
The most likely thing was, if the "Wolf" did 
not secure another prize, that the "Hitachi" 
would be sunk and all of us transferred to the 
"Wolf" once more. It was certain, however, 
that the Germans did not want us on the 
"Wolf" again, and still more certain that we 
did not want to go. They regarded us, es- 
pecially the women, as a nuisance on board 
their ship, which was already more than 
comfortably full. In addition, some of the 
German officers who had before given up 
their cabins to some of the married couple 
prisoners, naturally did not want to do so 
again, as it meant that all the officers' quar- 
ters would become very cramped. The Ger- 
man doctor, too, protested against further 
crowding of the "Wolf," but these protests 
were overruled. 

42 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

There was talk of their leaving the "Hi- 
tachi" where she was, with some weeks' stores 
on board, with her coal exhausted and her 
wireless dismantled, the "Wolf" to send out 
a wireless in a few weeks' time as to our con- 
dition and whereabouts. If this had hap- 
pened, there was talk among us of a boat ex- 
pedition to the Seychelles to effect an earlier 
rescue. There was also mentioned another 
scheme of taking the "Hitachi" near Mauri- 
tius, sending all her prisoners and German of- 
ficers and crew off in boats at nightfall to the 
island, and then blowing up the ship. But all 
these plans came to nothing, and as day by 
day went by and the "Wolf," for reasons best 
known to herself, did not go out after another 
prize, though the Germans knew and told us 
what steamers were about — and in more than 
one case we knew they were correct — it be- 
came evident that the "Hitachi" would have 
to be destroyed, as she had not enough coal to 
carry on with, and we should all have to be 
sent on to the "Wolf." 

But the married men protested vigorously 
against having their wives put in danger of 

43 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

shell fire from a British or Allied cruiser, and 
on October thirtieth sent the following peti- 
tion to the Commander of the "Wolf" : 

"We, the undersigned detained etiemy 
subjects traveling with our wives, some 
of whom have already been exposed to 
shell fire, and the remainder to the risk 
thereof, and have suffered many weeks' 
detention on board, respectfully beg that 
no women be transferred to the auxil- 
iary cruiser, thereby exposing them to a 
repetition of the grave dangers they have 
already run. We earnestly trust that 
some means may be found by which 
consideration may be shown to all the 
women on board by landing them safely 
without their incurring further peril. 
We take this opportunity of expressing 
our gratitude for the treatment we have 
received since our capture, and our sin- 
cere appreciation of the courtesy and 
consideration shown us by every officer 
and man from your ship with whom we 
have been brought in contact." 
He sent back a verbal message that there 

44 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

was no alternative but to put us all, women 
included, on the "Wolf," as the "Hitachi" 
had no coal, but that they should be landed at 
a neutral port from the next boat caught, if 
she had any coal. 

We were still not satisfied with this, and I 
again protested to our Captain against what 
was equivalent to putting women out in a 
German first line trench to be shot by our 
own people. He replied that we need have 
no anxiety on that score. "We know exactly 
where all your cruisers are, we pick up all 
their wireless messages, and we shall never 
see or go anywhere near one of them." 
Whether the Germans did know this, or hear 
our ships' wireless I cannot tell, but it is cer- 
tainly true that we never, between Septem- 
ber and February, saw a British or Allied 
vessel of any sort or kind, or even the smoke 
of one, although during that time we trav- 
elled from Ceylon to the Cape, and the whole 
length of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The food on the "Hitachi" was now getting 
poorer and poorer. There was no longer any 
fruit, cheese, vegetables, coffee or jam. All 

45 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

the eggs were bad, only a very little butter 
remained, the beer was reserved for the ship's 
officers, iced water and drinks were no longer 
obtainable, and the meat became more and 
more unpleasant. On the "Wolf" the food 
was still poorer, and beri-beri broke out on 
the raider. A case of typhoid also appeared 
on the "Wolf" and the German doctors there- 
upon inoculated every man, woman and child 
on both ships against typhoid. We had heard 
before of German "inoculations" and some of 
us had nasty forebodings as to the results. 
But protests were of no avail — everyone had 
to submit. The first inoculation took place 
on November first, the next on November 
eleventh, and some of the people were inocu- 
lated a third time. 

One night while the ships were lashed 
alongside a great uproar arose on both ships. 
The alarm was given, orders were shouted, 
revolvers and side arms were hastily assumed 
and sailors commenced rushing and shouting 
from all parts of both ships. Most of us were 
scared, not knowing what had happened. It 
appeared that a German sailor had fallen 

46 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

down between the two ships; his cries, of 
course, added to the tumult, but luckily he 
was dragged up without being much injured. 
We could not help wondering if such a com- 
motion were made at such a small accident, 
what would happen if a cruiser came along 
and the real alarm were given. The ship 
would bid fair to become a vertiable mad- 
house — evidently the nerves of all the Ger- 
mans were very much on edge. The only 
thing for the prisoners to do was to get out 
of the way as much as possible, and retire to 
their cabins. 

In addition to the transference of coal and 
cargo which went on without cessation, day 
and night, our ship was gradually being 
stripped. Bunks and cabin fittings, heating 
apparatus, pianos, bookcases, brass and rub- 
ber stair-treads, bed and table linen, ceiling 
and table electric fans, clocks and all movable 
fittings were transferred to the "Wolf," and 
our ship presented a scene of greater destruc- 
tion every day. The Germans were excellent 
shipbreakers. Much of the cargo could not 
be taken on board the "Wolf," it was not 

47 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

wanted, and there was no room for it, and 
some of this, especially some fancy Japanese 
goods, clothes, gloves and toys, was broached 
by the sailors, and some was left untouched 
in the holds. The Prize Captain secured for 
himself as a trophy, a large picture placed at 
the head of the saloon stairs of the "Hitachi." 
This represented a beautiful Japanese wood- 
land scene, embossed and painted on velvet. 

Longing eyes had been cast on the notice 
published by the Germans concerning rules 
and regulations on board, and most of us de- 
termined to get possession of it. When first 
fixed on the notice board it had been blown 
down, and recovered by a German sailor. It 
was then framed and again exhibited. Later 
on it was again taken out of its frame and 
again pinned up. It remained on the notice 
board till the day before the "Hitachi" was 
sunk. After supper that evening I was lucky 
enough to find it still there, so removed it and 
have kept it as a memento of the time when 
I was a "detained enemy subject !" 

The boats were all lashed down, the hatch- 
es the same, and every precaution taken to 

48 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

prevent wreckage floating away when the 
vessel was sunk. On the afternoon of No- 
vember fifth the Germans shifted all the pas- 
sengers' heavy luggage on to the "Wolf," and 
we were told we should have to leave the 
"Hitachi" and go on board the "Wolf" at one 
p. m. the next day. The "Hitachi" was now 
in a sad condition, her glory was indeed de- 
parted and her end very near. We had our 
last meal in her stripped saloon that day at 
noon, and at one o'clock moved over on to the 
"Wolf," the German sailors carrying our 
light cabin luggage for us. The crew and 
their belongings, the Japanese stewards and 
theirs, moved over to the "Wolf" in the after- 
noon, and at five p. m. on November sixth the 
"Wolf" sheered off, leaving the "Hitachi" de- 
serted, but for the German Captain and offi- 
cers, and the bombing party who were to 
send her to the bottom next day. 

Both ships remained where they were for 
the night, abreast of and about four hundred 
yards distant from each other. At nine a. m. 
on November seventh they moved off and 
manoeuvred. The Germans did not intend to 

49 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

sink the "Hitachi" where she was, but in deep 
water. To do this they had to sail some dis- 
tance from the Nazareth Bank. The "Hi- 
tachi" hoisted the German Imperial Navy 
flag, and performed a kind of naval goose- 
step for the delectation of the "Wolf." At 
one p. m. the flag was hauled down, both 
ships stopped, and the "Hitachi" blew off 
steam for the last time. 

There were still a few people on her, and 
the "Wolfs" motor-launch made three trips 
between the two ships before the German 
Captain and bombing officer left the "Hi- 
tachi." Three bombs had been placed for her 
destruction, one forward outside the ship on 
the starboard side, one amidships inside, and 
one aft on the port side outside the ship. At 
one thirty-three p. m. the Captain arrived 
alongside the "Wolf," and at one thirty-four 
the first bomb exploded with a dull subdued 
roar and a high column of water ; the explo- 
sion of the other bomb followed at intervals 
of a minute, so that by one thirty-six the last 
bomb had exploded. All on the "Wolf" now 
stood watching the "Hitachi's" last struggle 

50 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

with the waves, a struggle which, thanks to 
her murderers, could have but one end; and 
the German officers stood on the "Wolf's" 
deck taking photos at different stages of the 
tragedy. The struggle was a long one — it 
was pathetic beyond words to watch it — for 
some time it even seemed as if the "Hitachi" 
were going to snatch one more victory from 
the sea, but just before two o'clock there 
were signs that she was settling fast. Her 
well deck forward was awash; exactly at 
two o'clock her bows went under, soon her 
funnel was surrounded with swirling water ; 
it disappeared, and with her propellers high 
in the air she dived slantingly down to her 
great grave, and at one minute past two the 
sea closed over her. Twenty-five minutes 
had elapsed since the explosion of the last 
bomb. The Germans said she and her cargo 
were worth a million sterling when she went 
down. 

There was great turmoil on the sea for 
some time after the ship disappeared; the 
ammunition-house on the poop floated away, 
a fair amount of wreckage also came away, 

51 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

an oar shot up high into the air from one of 
the hatches, the sodium Hghts attached to 
the Hf ebuoys ignited and ran along the water, 
and the "Wolf," exactly like a murderer mak- 
ing sure that the struggles of his victim had 
finally ceased, moved away from the scene 
of her latest crime. 

Thus came to an end the second of the Nip- 
pon Yushen Kaisha fleet bearing the name of 
"Hitachi Maru." The original ship of that 
name had been sunk by the Russians in the 
Russo-Japanese war. Our ill-fated vessel 
had taken her place. It will savor of tempt- 
ing Providence if another ship ever bears 
her unfortunate name, and no sailor could be 
blamed for refusing to sail in her. 



5^ 



CHAPTER V 

LIFE on the "Wolf" was very different 
to life on the "Hitachi." To begin with, 
all the single men of military age from 
the "Hitachi" were accommodated on the 
'tween decks, and slept in hammocks which 
they had to sling themselves. The elder men 
among them slept in bunks taken from the 
"Hitachi," but the quarters of all in the 
'tween decks were very restricted; there was 
no privacy, no convenience, and only a screen 
divided the European and Japanese quarters. 
The condition of our fellow-countrymen 
from the "Hitachi" was now the reverse of 
enviable, though it was a great deal better 
than that of the crews of the captured ships, 
who were "accommodated" under the poop — 
where the captains and officers captured had 
quarters to themselves — and exercised on 
the poop and well deck, the port side of 

53 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

which was reserved for the Japanese. 

There were now more than four hundred 
prisoners on board, mostly British, some of 
whom had been captured in the February 
previous, as the "Wolf" had left Germany 
in November, 1916, the ''Hitachi" being the 
tenth prize taken. The condition in which 
these prisoners lived cannot be too strongly 
condemned. The heat in the tropics was in- 
sufferable, the overcrowding abominable, 
and on the poop there was hardly room to 
move. While anchored near Sunday Island, 
in the Pacific some months earlier, two of 
the British prisoners taken from the first 
prize captured managed to escape. Their 
absence was not noticed by the Germans till 
a fortnight later, as up to then there had 
be'en no daily rollcall, an omission which 
was at once rectified directly these two men 
were noted missing. As a punishment, the 
prisoners aft were no longer allowed to ex- 
ercise on the poop, but were kept below. The 
heat and stifling atmosphere were incon- 
ceivable and cruel. The iron deck below 
presented the appearance of having been 

54 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

hosed — in reality it was merely the perspira- 
tion streaming off these poor persecuted cap- 
tives that drenched the deck. The attention 
of the ship's doctor was one day called to 
this and he at once forbade this inhuman 
confinement in future. From then onwards, 
batches of the prisoners were allowed on the 
poop at a time, so that every man could 
obtain at least a little fresh air a day — 
surely the smallest concession that could pos- 
sibly be made to men living under wretched 
conditions. 

But notwithstanding these hardships the 
men seemed to be merry and bright and 
showed smiling faces to their captors. They 
had all evidently made up their minds to 
keep their end up to the last, and were not 
to be downed by any bad news or bad treat- 
ment the Germans might give them. 

The "Wolf" of course picked up wireless 
news every day, printed it, and circulated it 
throughout the ship in German and English. 
We did not, however, hear all the news that 
was picked up, but felt that what we did 
hear kept us at least a little in touch with 

55 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 



the outside world, and we have since been 
able to verify that, and also to discover that 
we missed a great deal, too. 

The accommodation provided for the mar- 
ried couples on the "Wolf" was situated on 
the upper deck on the port side. Some 
"cabins" had been improvised when the first 
women and civilian prisoners had been cap- 
tured, some had been vacated by the officers, 
and others had been carved out as the num- 
ber of these prisoners increased. The cabins 
of course — small — there was very little room 
to spare on the "Wolf" — and, at the best, 
makeshift contrivances, but it must be ad- 
mitted that our German captors did all they 
could to make us as comfortable as possible 
under the conditions prevailing. The mar- 
ried couples, the Australian military officers 
and a few elderly civilians messed together 
in the officers' ward-room, quite a tiny sa- 
loon, which was placed at our disposal after 
the officers had finished their meals. 

The food on the "Wolf" was better cooked 
than it had been on the "Hitachi," but there 
was of course no fresh food of any kind. 

56 i 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

Even the potatoes we had were dried and 
had to be soaked many hours before they 
were cooked, and even then they did not 
much resemble the original article; the same 
remark applies to the other vegetables we 
had. Occasionally our meals satisfied us as 
far as quantity went, but in the main we left 
the table feeling we could with ease dispose 
of a great deal more. This was especially 
the case after breakfast, which consisted of 
bread and jam only. Each cabin had a Ger- 
man orderly to look after and wait on its 
occupants, two German stewards waited on 
us at meals, and a Japanese steward had two 
or three cabins to look after and clean. 

The deck — we were only allowed the port 
side — was only about six feet wide, and 
part of this was occupied by spare spars. 
Sailors and officers, and prisoners to fetch 
their food were passing along this deck in- 
cessantly all day, so it can be easily imag- 
ined there was not much room for sitting 
about in deck chairs. On this deck, too, was 
the prisoners' cell, usually called the "cala- 
boose," very rarely without an occupant 

57 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

with an armed sentry on guard outside. It 
was not a cheerful abode, being very small 
and dark; and the prisoner, if his sentence 
were a long one, served it in installments of 
a few days at a time. 

We were allowed to go down to the well 
deck to see our friends and sit on the hatch 
with them during the daytime. They had 
their meals in the 'tween decks at different 
times from us, but the food provided was 
usually just the same. The evenings were 
the deadliest times of all on the "Wolf." At 
dusk the order "Schiff Abblenden" resounded 
all through the ship, sailors came round to 
put tin plates over all the portholes, and from 
thence onward throughout the night com- 
plete darkness prevailed on deck, not a glint 
of light showing anywhere on the ship. 

When the "Wolf" considered herself in 
dangerous waters, and when she was laying 
mines, even smoking was forbidden on deck. 
All the cabins had a device by which directly 
the door was open the light went out, only 
to be relit directly the door closed. So it 
was impossible for anyone to leave his cabin 

58 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

with the door open and the light on. There 
was nothing to do in the evenings after the 
last meal, which was over before eight 
o'clock. There was nowhere to sit except on 
the dark deck or in the dark cabins; it was 
so hot that the cabin doors had to be kept 
open, and the evenings spent on the "Wolf" 
were certainly very dreary. Most of us felt 
we would rather be in gaol on shore, for then 
we should be in no risk of being killed at any 
moment by our own people, our cells would 
have been larger than our cabins, our food 
possibly not much worse, and our gaol would 
at least have been stationary and not rolling 
about, though it must be confessed that the 
"Wolf" was a good sea boat. 

She had been one of the Hansa line before 
the war, and was about six thousand tons, 
with a speed of about ten knots at the out- 
side. She had been thoroughly adapted for 
her work as a raider, had four torpedo tubes 
and six guns (said to be 4.7) with concrete 
emplacements, not to mention machine and 
smaller guns, none of which could be seen 
by a passing ship, to which the "Wolf" 

59 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

looked, as she was intended to look, exactly 
like an innocent tramp. When in action her 
bulwarks dropped, giving free play to her 
guns and torpedoes. There was telephone 
communcation between her bridge and every 
gun and every part of the ship; she carried 
a huge searchlight, her masts and funnel 
were telescopic, and she could rig an extra 
funnel. She carried large supplies of bombs, 
hand grenades, rifles and small arms, had 
hospitals with two doctors on board; among 
her crew of more than three hundred were 
representatives of every trade, she was thor- 
oughly well equipped in every way, the 
officers had the best and most powerful bin- 
oculars, and absolutely nothing seemed to 
have been forgotten. There were, it was 
said, only three of the officers who were Im- 
perial Navy men, the Commander, the Artil- 
lery Officer, and the Lieutenant in charge of 
the prisoners. All the other officers and a 
great many of the crew were from the Ger- 
man mercantile marine, who had travelled 
with, mixed with and lived with English- 
men in many parts of the world. To this 

60 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

we undoubtedly owed the kindly treatment 
we received on board, treatment which was 
infinitely better than we expected to receive. 
The majority of the officers and men were 
certainly kindly disposed towards us. There 
is no doubt, however, that the fear we might 
be taken by a British cruiser also had some- 
thing to do with this treatment, for if we 
had been treated badly the Germans knew 
they would have had cause to regret it had 
they been captured. 

In a conversation with the Lieutenant in 
charge of the prisoners — who, by the way, 
had a Scottish mother — I remarked that it 
was very hard on our relatives and friends 
not knowing what had become of us. He 
agreed that it was, but added it was no worse 
for my relations than it was for his ! They 
did not know where he was either! "No," 
I replied, "but you are out doing your duty 
and serving your country, and when you 
left home your people knew they would have 
no news of you for many months. It is 
quite diiferent with us. We were not out 
to be taken prisoner, we were simply travel- 

61 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

ling on business, being compelled to do so. 
We are not serving our country by being- 
caught and kept in this way, and our rela- 
tives did not expect us to disappear and send 
them no nev^s of ourselves for a long time." 
However, he affected not to see the differ- 
ence between our case and his; just as the 
sailors often told the prisoners aft that in 
case of the "Wolf" going into action, it would 
be no worse for the prisoners than it was for 
the fighting crew. 

We were forbidden to talk to the crew, 
but under cover of the darkness some of 
them, a great number of whom spoke Eng- 
lish, were only too glad to speak to us. We 
learnt from them that the "Wolf" had been 
out a year, and that they were all very "fed 
up" with it all, tired of the life, tired of the 
sea, tired of the food, longing to get home, 
and longing for the war to end. They had, 
too, no doubts as to how it would end, and 
were certain that the "Wolf" would get back 
to Germany whenever she wished to do so. 

They were certain three things would 
bring them victory; their submarines, the 

62 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

defection of Russia who would soon be made 
to conclude peace with Germany, and the 
fact that in their opinion America had en- 
tered the war too late. 

The interests of the "Wolf" were now, to 
a certain extent, identical with our own — 
that we should not meet an Allied cruiser. 
A notice was posted in some of our cabins 
saying that in that event the women with 
their husbands, and some other prisoners 
would be put into boats with a white flag, 
"if weather and other conditions permitted." 
The other prisoners, however, viz: — those 
under the poop and on the 'tween decks, 
would have had no chance of being saved. 
They would all have been battened down 
under hatches (this indeed was done when- 
ever the "Wolf" sighted or captured a ship, 
when mines were being sown, and when and 
other drill was carried on) and armed guards 
with hand grenades sent among them. Their 
fate, if the "Wolf" had gone into action, 
would have been too terrible to contemplate, 
and it is certain very few of them could have 
been saved. 

63 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

The "Wolf" with a company of over seven 
hundred on board sailed away on a south- 
westerly course for the next two days, and 
the usual routine of the ship went on, but 
no further drills took place. Soon after day- 
break on November tenth a sailor came along 
and locked us all in our cabins, armed guards 
patrolled the deck, and a short time after an 
officer came to each cabin and informed us 
there was a steamer on the starboard side 
which the "Wolf" intended to capture. He 
told us the "Wolf" would fire on her to make 
her stop, and provided all of us with cotton 
wool to insert in our ears while the guns 
were being fired! We waited for the sound 
of the guns, but nothing happened, and in 
about half an hour the same officer came 
along and said to us, "Don't be fearful, the 
other ship has stopped and there will be no 
firing!" Our cabin doors were unlocked, the 
men on the upper deck were allowed out, 
the ladies were requested not to show them- 
selves on deck, and another officer ran along 
the deck saying "We've catched her, we've 
catched her, a neutral this time!" 

64 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

The "catched" vessel had stopped and was 
lying very near the "Wolf." The name on 
her stern proclaimed her to be the "Igotz 
Mendi" of Bilbao, and she was flying the 
Spanish flag. In a short time a prize crew 
left the "Wolf" in her motor-launch, and 
proceeded to the other ship. After they had 
been aboard her a few minutes, a message 
came back that the Spanish ship was from 
Delagoa Bay to Colombo with a cargo of 
fifty-eight hundred tons of coal for the Brit- 
ish Admiralty authorities in Ceylon. The 
chargin of the Germans may be imagined 
when they realized that they had captured 
this ship just three days too late to save 
the "Hitachi." Here was a ship with ample 
coal, which, had it been captured a few days 
before, would have enabled the Germans to 
save the "Hitachi" and take her as a prize 
to Germany as they had always desired to 
do. The "Igotz Mendi" had left Lourenco, 
Marquez, on November fifth and was due at 
Colombo on the twenty-second. Before nine 
a.m. on the morning of the capture, both 
ships had turned about, the prize now being 

65 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

in command of the Germans, and were going 
back on the course the "Wolf" had followed 
since the destruction of the "Hitachi." Dis- 
cussion was rife among the prisoners as to 
what would be done with the new capture, 
and whether the Commander of the "Wolf" 
would redeem his promise to transfer the 
married couples to the "next ship caught." 



66 



CHAPTER VI 

THE two ships steamed along in com- 
pany for the next three days, usually 
stopping towards sunset for communi- 
cations and sending orders. On Sun- 
day the eleventh we were invited to a band 
performance on the well deck forward. It 
was quite a good one. The first mate came 
along and jokingly said to us, "What more 
can you want ? We give you a free passage, 
free food, and even free music." I replied, 
"We only want one more thing free." "What 
is that?" he asked. "Freedom," I answered. 
"Ah!" he said, smiling. "I am afraid you 
I had asked him earlier in the day, if he 
would allow us the use of a room and a 
piano for a short time in the afternoon, so 
that we could keep up our custom of singing 
a few hymns on Sunday. Later on, he told 
me we might, with the permission of the 

67 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

officers, have their wardroom for half an 
hour. The officers and he had kindly agreed 
to this, a concession we much appreciated, 
and the little wardroom was crowded in- 
deed on that occasion. 

At daybreak on the thirteenth both ships 
arrived at the Nazareth Bank, and before 
nine a.m. were lashed together. On such 
occasions the "Wolf" never dropped anchor, 
for she might have to be up and away at 
the slightest warning; the prize ship was 
always the one to drop anchor. On the pre- 
vious Tuesday the "Wolf" had been lashed 
alongside the "Hitachi"; here, on this Tues- 
day, the "Wolf" was lashed alongside another 
captured ship in the very same place! 
Again the daring and coolness of our cap- 
tors amazed us. Coaling* from the "Igotz 
Mendi" to the "Wolf" at once began, and a 
wireless installation was immediately rigged 
up by the Germans on the Spanish ship. 
Coaling proceeded all that day, and the Ger- 
man officers and crews on both ships were 
very busy. The prisoners aft were also very 
busy catching fish over the side. No sooner 

68 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

had the ships stopped than lines were dropped 
overboard and many fine fish were caught. 
The prisoners aft wore very little clothing 
and often no headgear at all, though we were 
in the tropics, where we had always thought 
a sun-helmet was a sine qua non. But the 
prisoners got on quite well without one. 

On the morning of the fourteenth orders 
were given to the married couples on the 
"Wolf" to get their light baggage ready at 
once for transference to the Spanish ship, 
as she and the "Wolf" might have to sepa- 
rate at any moment. Our heavy baggage 
would be transferred if time allowed. Evi- 
dently something was in the air, some wire- 
less message had been picked up, as the sea- 
plane was being brought up from the 'tween 
decks, and assembled in great haste on the 
well deck. The "Wolfchen" went up about 
four-twenty and returned about five-thirty 
and in the interval our heavy baggage had 
been brought up from the "Wolf's" hold 
ready to be transhipped to the "Igotz Mendi." 
We did not understand at the time why the 
Germans were so considerate to us in the 

69 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

matter of baggage — but later on, a great 
deal later on, light dawned on us ! At dusk 
that evening the married people were trans- 
ferred to the Spanish ship. The next morn- 
ing we were still alongside the "Wolf" and 
remained there till the morning of the sev- 
enteenth, our heavy baggage being trans- 
shipped in the interval. There had also been 
transferred the Colonel of the A.A.M.C. 
already mentioned, and three other men — 
including the second mate of one ship pre- 
viously captured — who were in ill-health. 
One of the "Hitachi" prisoners, a man over 
military age, who had come on board at 
Colombo straight from hospital, and was 
going for a health voyage to South Africa, 
had been told in the morning that he was 
to be transferred to the Spanish ship. But 
later on, much to the regret of everyone, it 
was found that the Germans would not re- 
lease him. A German officer came up to him 
and said in my hearing, "Were you not told 
this morning that you were to go on the 
"Igotz Mendi?" "Yes," he replied. "Well," 
said the officer, "you're not to." Comment 

70 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

on the brutal manner of this remark is 
unnecessary. 

The message the seaplane had brought 
back had evidently been a reassuring one, and 
we heard a long time afterwards that the 
"Wolf" had picked up a wireless from a 
Japanese cruiser, presumably looking for 
the "Hitachi," only thirty miles away. Hence 
the alarm! Unfortunately for us, if this 
report were true, the cruiser did not turn 
aside to look in the most obvious place where 
a ship like the "Wolf" would hide, so once 
more the "Wolf" was safe. 

If only there had been a couple of cruisers 
disguised, like the "Wolf," as tramps, each 
one carrying a seaplane or two, in each ocean 
free from submarine attentions, the "Wolf" 
could have been seen and her career brought 
to an end long before. The same end would 
probably have been attained on this occasion 
if a wireless message had been sent from 
Delagoa Bay to Colombo saying that the 
"Igotz Mendi" had left the former port for 
the latter with five thousand tons of coal on 
board. The strong wireless installation on 

71 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

the "Wolf," which picked up every message 
within a large radius, but of course never 
sent any, would have picked up this message, 
and the "Wolf" would probably have risen 
to the bait, with the result that she could 
have been caught by an armed vessel sent 
in search of her on that track. For it must 
have been known that a raider was out in 
those waters, as the disappearance of the 
"Hitachi" could only have been due to the 
presence of one. 

Coaling proceeded without cessation till 
the morning of the seventeenth, when the 
"Wolf" moved off a short distance. Passen- 
gers on mail boats familiar with the process 
of coaling ship at Port Said, Colombo, or 
any other port, can imagine the condition 
of these ships, after three or four days' in- 
cessant coaling day and night. The appear- 
ance of the "Igotz Mendi" was meanwhile 
undergoing another change. When captured 
she was painted white and had a buff fun- 
nel with her Company's distinguishing mark. 
She was now painted the Allied gray color, 
and when her sides and funnel had been 

72 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

transformed the two ships sailed awa}^ and 
on the evening of the seventeenth, after 
final orders and instructions had been given, 
parted company. For some days after this 
painting was the order of the day on the 
Spanish ship, which was now gray on every 
part visible. 

The Captain of the Spanish ship was now 
relieved of his duties — and also of his cabin, 
which the German Captain had annexed, 
leaving the owner thereof the chartroom to 
sleep in — and was naturally very chagrined 
at the course events had taken, especially as 
he said he had been told by the Consul at 
Lourenco Marquez that the course between 
there and Colombo was quite clear, and had 
not even been informed of the disappearance 
of the "Hitachi," though she had been over- 
due at Delagoa Bay about a month. 

Consequently he had been showing his 
navigation lights at sea, and without them 
the "Wolf" would probably not have seen 
him, as it was about one a.m. when the 
"Wolf" picked him up. The remaining Span- 
ish officers took their watch on the bridge, 

73 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

always with a member of the prize crew in 
attendance, the Spanish engineers remained 
in charge of the engine-room, again with a 
German always present, and the Spanish 
crew remained on duty as before. There was 
a prize crew of nine Germans on board; the 
Captain, Lieutenant Rose, who had also been 
in charge of the ''Hitachi" after her capture, 
and the First Officer, who had also filled 
that post on the "Hitachi," being the only 
officers. Lieutenant Rose spoke Spanish in 
addition to English and French, and the 
Spanish Captain also spoke very good Eng- 
lish. Some of the Spanish officers also spoke 
English, but the knowledge of it was not so 
general as it was on the "Wolf," where every 
officer we met spoke our language, and most 
of the prize crew spoke quite enough to get 
on with. 

The "Igotz Mendi" had been completed in 
1916, and was a ship admirably fitted for her 
purpose, which, however, was not that of 
carrying passengers. Ordinarily she was a 
collier, or carried iron ore. Her decks were 
of iron, scorchingly hot in the tropics, and 

74 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

icy cold in northern latitudes. There was no 
place sheltered from the sun in which to sit 
on the small deck space, and the small awn- 
ings which were spasmodically rigged up 
were quite insufficient for the purpose. 
There were no cabins except those provided 
for the officers, who generously gave them 
up to the married couples on board, the offi- 
cers taking quarters much more crowded 
and much less desirable. The cabins were 
quite suitable for one occupant each, but 
very cramped for two; the one occupied by 
my wife and myself being only seven and 
a half feet square. Each containd one bunk 
and one settee, the latter being a sleeping 
place far from comfortable, as it was only 
five and a half feet long by about twenty 
inches wide, and the floor space was very 
narrow and restricted. There were four 
cabins, two on each side of a narrow alley- 
way about two feet wide, while one mar- 
ried couple occupied the Chief Engineer's 
cabin further aft on the starboard side, quite 
a roomy apartment. The port cabin opposite 
to it was occupied by an old Mauritius-Indian 

75 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 



woman and her little granddaughter, the 
Japanese stewardess, the Australian stew- 
ardess already mentioned, and a colored man 
going to South Africa with his Chinese wife. 
Rather crowded quarters, not to mention 
somewhat unseemly conditions! The Asi- 
atic passengers had been "intermediate" 
passengers on the "Hitachi" — i.e. between 
the second-class and deck passengers. The 
four men above mentioned occupied a space 
under the poop, it could not be dignified with 
the name of cabin. It was very small, only 
one occupant could dress at a time, and im- 
mediately in front of it was a reeking pigsty 
with three full-sized occupants. The pass- 
age to it from the saloon on the upper deck 
was often a perilous one in rough weather 
and on dark nights, for there was never any 
light showing on board at night during the 
whole cruise. Tlie prize crew had quarters 
on the starboard side under the poop; they 
were exceedingly small, cramped, and in 
every way inconvenient and uncomfortable. 
This, then, was to be our home for the next 
few months. We did not know for how 

76 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

long, but we regarded the prospect with a 
certain amount of equanimity, as the ship 
was unarmed, and we knew we should not 
be fired on by a hostile cruiser, as might 
have been the case if we had remained on 
the "Wolf." 

When we arrived on the Spanish boat we 
were served with meals at the same time to 
which the Spanish officers had been accus- 
tomed, i.e. breakfast at nine and supper at 
four, but these times were soon afterwards 
changed to breakfast at eight-thirty, tiffin 
at twelve-thirty and supper at five-thirty. 
We were lucky to get fresh food for some 
days. But this soon came to an end, though 
the stock of muscatels, a quince preserve — 
called memhrillo- — and Spanish wine lasted 
very much longer. There was on board a 
certain amount of live stock; some chickens, 
and a couple of cows each of which had a 
calf born on board; these all met the usual 
fate of such things on appropriate occasions. 

For many days after we parted company 
with the "Wolf" we ambled and dawdled 
through the sea on a southwesterly course, 

77 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

sometimes stopping altogether for an hour 
or two, sometimes for half a day, some- 
times for a whole day. The monotony of 
this performance was deadly beyond words. 
On one of these days, the Captain offered to 
land us at Mauritius on the following morn- 
ing and give himself up with the crew and 
ship if we could raise £100,000 for him. Un- 
fortunately, we couldn't! 

On the afternoon of the twenty-third the 
Germans became very agitated at the sight 
of smoke on the horizon. At first we all 
thought it was the "Wolf," but before long 
we could see two columns of smoke, evi- 
dently coming from two steamers traveling 
together. The prisoners then became very 
agitated also, as help might be at hand. But 
the Germans at once changed the course, and 
manouevred at full speed in such a way that 
we soon got out of sight of the smoke, when 
we resumed our original course again, after 
having boxed the compass more than once, 
and the German Captain came down from 
the bridge and told us there was no relief 
for us yet. We all felt that if the "Hitachi" 

78 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

had only avoided distant smoke as the Ger- 
man Captain had done, we need never have 
made the acquaintance of the "Wolf." 

On the twenty-fourth we again met the 
"Wolf" in the evening. Whenever the 
"Wolf" had an appointment to meet her 
prize at a certain time and place, the prize 
always hoisted recognition signals directly 
she saw the "Wolf" on the horizon. These 
were made of wicker, and varied in shape 
on different occasions. 

We were now well to the south of Africa, 
in the roaring forties, and we saw many 
schools of whales, and albatrosses accom- 
panied us for many days. By December first 
we had begun to steer northwest, and on the 
third the Captain informed us we were 
the nearest we should ever be to Cape Town, 
the port to which I had set out. We were 
then one hundred and fifty miles off. We 
met the "Wolf" again on the fifth and trav- 
eled in her company during the remainder 
of that day and the next two, stopping as 
usual for communication and the sending of 
stores to us in the evenings just before sun- 

79 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

set. Often, when the ship stopped, Lieuten- 
ant Rose would go aboard the "Wolf," an- 
other Lieutenant boarding us and remaining 
in charge during his absence. The "Wolf" 
on this occasion told us she had sunk the 
American sailing vessel "John LL Kirby," 
from America to East London with a cargo 
of four hundred motor-cars on board, when 
two days from her destination, the officers 
and crew being taken on board the "Wolf." 
Many people in South Africa would have to 
dispense with their motor joy-rides at Christ- 
mas in consequence. 

The evening of December seventh was the 
last occasion on which we saw the "Wolf" 
for many days. The two sh%)s now shaped 
a course for the Brazilian Island of Trinidad, 
where it was understood the "Wolf" would 
coal from her prize, and with her spend the 
Christmas holidays. 



CHAPTER Vir 

IT must not be supposed that the life of 
the prisoners on the "Igotz Mendi" in 
any way approximated to that of pas- 
sengers on an ordinary passenger ship. To 
begin with, there were no ship's servants 
to wait on us with the exception of the 
Spanish steward, a youth who "waited" at 
table and excelled in breaking ship's crock- 
ery. If the cabins were to be kept clean, 
we had to do it ourselves. Every morning 
saw the occupants sweeping out and cleaning 
up their cabins, as no ship's servant ever 
entered them. The water supply was very 
limited, and had to be fetched by ourselves — 
no matter what the weather- — sometimes 
from the fore peak, and sometimes from 
a pump near the ship's galley. Wash- 
ing water and drinking water were served 
out twice a day, at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., an ordi- 
nary water can being the allowance of the 

8i 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

former, and a water bottle that of the latter. 
The supply of washing water was very in- 
adequate, and no hot water was ever avail- 
able. After washing ourselves, we had to 
wash our clothes in the same water — for 
there was of course no laundry on board — 
and then the cabin floor after that. By this 
time the water was mud. It was impossible 
to have a proper bath all the time we were 
on board, for there was no water supply in 
the bathroom, an it was kept in an extremely 
dirty condition. 

The saloon, about eighteen feet square, in 
which all the meals were served in two sit- 
tings, was very rarely clean, and the habits 
of the Captain's pup did not improve matters. 
The pup, born on the *Wolf," rejoiced in 
the name of "Luchs" and as his presence was 
so evident in the saloon, it was often appro- 
priately named the "Salon de luxe." The 
table "appointments" were often disgust- 
ing. The table cloth was filthy after the 
first meal or so, thanks to the rolling of the 
ship, but was only changed twice, sometimes 
Qnly once a week. Cups were us€d without 

§2 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

saucers, and spoons gradually disappeared, 
so that towards the end one had to suffice 
between four or five persons. 

We got thoroughly sick of the food pro- 
vided, but the German officers and crew had 
just the same. The "Hitachi" had been carry- 
ing ten thousand cases of canned crab to 
England. A great part of this was saved, 
and divided between the "Wolf" and her 
prize. None of us ever want to see or hear 
of this commodity again; we were fed on 
it till most of us loathed it, but as there 
was nothing else to eat when it was served, 
we perforce had to eat that, or dry bread, 
and several of us chose the latter. Bully 
beef, every variety of bean, dried vegetables, 
dried fish that audibly announced its advent 
to the table, bean soup, and pea soup we got 
just as sick of, till, long before the end, all 
the food served nauseated us. Tea, some- 
times made in a coffee pot, sometimes even 
with salt water, was the usual hot drink pro- 
vided, but coffee was for some time available 
once a day. We owe a great debt to one of 
our fellow-prisoners, a ship's cook, captured 

S3 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

from one of the other ships, who in return 
for his offer to work as baker was promised 
his Hberty, which fortunately he has now 
secured, though no thanks to the Germans. 
He baked, under the most difficult conditions, 
extraordinarily good bread, and over and 
over again we should have gone without food 
but for this. We were often very hungry, 
for there was nothing to eat between "sup- 
per" at 5.30, and breakfast next morning at 
8.30. The Captain had given each lady a 
large box of biscuits from the ''Hitachi,'* 
and my wife and I used to eat a quarter of 
a biscuit each before turning in for the night. 
We could not afford more — the box might 
have to last us for many months. 

Mention has been made of the ship's roll- 
ing. Her capacity for this was incredible — 
in the smoothest sea, whether stopped or 
under steam, she rolled heavily from side to 
side, and caused great discomfort, inconven- 
ience, and often alarm to all on board. The 
remark, "The 'Mendi' roll, fresh every day 
for every meal, for breakfast, dinner and 
tea," was made by someone at almost every 

84 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

meal time, as we clutched at our food, glid- 
ing or jumping from end to end of the saloon 
table, accompanied by the smashing of crock- 
ery and upsetting of liquids and soup. Even 
the Captain was astonished at the rolling of 
the ship, as he well might have been, when 
one night he, in common with most of us, 
was flung out of his berth. No ship ever 
rolled like it — the bath in the bathroom even 
got loose and slid about in its socket, adding 
to the great din on board. 

As may be imagined there was not much 
to do on board. The few books we had be- 
tween us were passed round and read over 
and over again. Some were also sent over 
from the "Wolf" for us. Card games of 
various kinds also helped to pass the time, 
and the Captain and some of the prisoners 
held a "poker school" morning, afternoon 
and evening in the saloon. But time, never- 
theless, dragged very heavily. 

We were at liberty to go practically where 
we liked on board, but we were never able 
to g«t far away from the German sailors, 
who alwayw appeared to be Mstening to our 

85 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

conversation, no matter where we were. As 
on the 'Wolf/' they were sometimes caught 
spying on us, and Hstening at the portholes 
or ventilators of our cabins. 

We next picked up the "Wolf" on the 
afternoon of December nineteenth and heard 
that since we had last seen her she had sunk 
a French sailing vessel loaded with grain 
for Europe. The two ships proceeded on 
parallel courses for Trinidad, but about eight 
p.m. both ships turned sharply round and 
doubled on their tracks, proceeding on a 
southeasterly course at full speed. We 
learnt the reason for this the next day. Ger- 
man raiders had previously coaled and 
hidden at Trinidad but Brazil was now in 
the war, so that hole was stopped, and the 
"Wolf" had intercepted a wireless from the 
Commander of a Brazilian cruiser to the 
garrison on Trinidad. Hence her rapid 
flight! But for that wireless message the 
"Wolf" would have walked right into the 
trap, and we should have been free within 
twelve hours from the time she picked up 
the message, 

B6 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

Once again wireless had been our undoing. 
The "Hitachi" had wirelessed the hour of 
her arrival at, and departure from Singapore 
and Colombo, the "Wolf" of course had 
picked up the messages and was ready wait- 
ing for her. One other ship, if not more, 
was caught in just the same way. The 
"Matunga" had wirelessed, not even in code, 
her departure, with the nature of her cargo, 
from Sydney to New Guinea, and she wire- 
lessed again when within a few hours of her 
destination. The "Wolf" waited for her, in- 
formed her that she had on board just the 
cargo the "Wolf" needed, captured, and 
afterwards sunk her. The "Wolf's" success 
in capturing ships and evading hostile cruis- 
ers was certainly due to her intercepting ap- 
parently indiscriminate wirelessing between 
ships, and between ships and shore — at one 
time in the Indian Ocean the "Wolf" was 
picking up news in four languages — and to 
her seaplane which enabled her to scout 
thoroughly and to spot an enemy ship long 
before she could have been seen by the 
enemy. 

87 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 



Soon after leaving the Indian Ocean, the 
seaplane had been taken to pieces and placed 
in the 'tween decks, so that if the "Wolf" 
had been seen by another steamer, her pos- 
session of a seaplane would not be revealed. 

The two ships proceeded on their new 
course at full speed for the next two days. 
On the twenty-first they slowed down, hop- 
ing to coal in the open sea. The next day 
both ships stopped, but the condition of the 
sea would not admit of coaling; we were then 
said to be about seven hundred miles east of 
Montevideo. It was a great disappointment 
to the Germans that they were prevented 
from coaling and spending their Christmas 
under the shelter of Trinidad, but it became 
quite clear that all the holes for German 
raiders in this part of the ocean had now 
been stopped, and that they would have to 
coal in the open sea or not at all. Some of 
us thought the Germans might go back to 
Tristan da Cunha or even to Gough Island — 
both British possessions in the South At- 
lantic — but the Germans would not risk this. 
Even St. Helena was mentioned as a possible 

88 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

coaling place but the Germans said that was 
impracticable, as it would mean an attack 
on an unfortified place, as if this would have 
been a new procedure for German armed 
forces ! 

But the disappointment about Trinidad 
was mitigated by other wireless news re- 
ceived. The Commander of the "Wolf^ 
called all his men together, and harangued 
them to the effect that the latest news was 
that Russia and Rumania were now out of 
the war, having given in to Germany, that 
the war would certainly be over in six 
months, and that the 'Wolf" would then go 
home in safety to a victorious, grateful and 
appreciative Fatherland. Some such spur 
as this was very necessary to the men, who 
were getting very discontented with the 
length of the cruise and conditions prevail- 
ing, notably the monotony of the cruise and 
threatened shortage of food, drink and to- 
bacco. The "Wolf" had brought out from 
Germany enormous stores of provisions for 
the cruise, which was expected to last about 
a year. In fact her cargo from Germany con- 

89 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 



sisted of coal, stores, ammunition and mines 
only. She replenished her stores solely from 
the prizes she took. 

Christmas Eve was still too rough for the 
ships to tie up alongside, and our Christmas 
the next day was the reverse of merry. The 
Germans had held a Christmas service on the 
*'Wolf" on Christmas Eve, and sounds of the 
band and singing were wafted to us over 
the waters. We could hold no service on 
the "Igotz Mendi" as we had no piano, but 
our friends on the "Wolf," so we heard after- 
wards, gathered together in the 'tween decks 
and joined in some Christmas music. On 
Christmas morning the Spanish Captain 
regaled the ladies with some choice brand of 
Spanish wine, and offered first-class cigars 
to the men prisoners, rather better than the 
"Stinkadoros" sometimes offered us by the 
crew. German officers on the ships ex- 
changed visits and we all tried to feel the 
day was not quite ordinary. Our thoughts 
and wishes on this sad Christmas Day may 
perhaps be "better imagined than described." 
The German officers had a great feast and 

90 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

a jolly time on the "Wolf." One cow and 
three pigs had been killed for the Christmas 
feast, but they did not go far between nearly 
eight hundred people and all the prisoners, 
at least, were glad when the dismal farce 
of Christmas under such conditions was 
over. 

The weather on Boxing Day was only a 
little more favorable than that on Christmas 
Day, but the Germans decided to wait no 
longer to coal the "Wolf." They had pre- 
viously conveyed water to our ship from the 
"Wolf" in boats. The same method of trans- 
ferring coal was discussed, but that idea was 
abandoned. At five p.m. she tied up along- 
side us. She bumped into us with consider- 
able force when she came up, and not many 
of us on board the "Igotz Mendi" will ever 
forget that night. Both ships were rolling 
heavily, and repeatedly bumping into each 
other, each ship quivering from end to end, 
and the funnel of the "Igotz Mendi" was 
visibly shaking at every fresh collision. 
Sleep was impossible for anyone on our boat ; 
in fact, many feared to turn in at all as they 

91 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

thought some of the plates of the boats 
might be stove in. The next day was no 
better, but rather worse. About six p.m. 
there was a great crash which alarmed all • 
it was due to the "Wolf's" crashing into and 
completely smashing part of the bridge of 
our ship. This was enough for the Germans. 
They decided to suspend operations, and at 
seven p.m. the "Wolf" sheered off, having 
coaled six hundred tons in twenty-five hours. 
The coaling process had severely damaged 
the "Wolf," many of whose plates were 
badly dented. We had lost eighteen large 
fenders between the ships, and the "Wolf" 
was leaking to the extent of twelve tons an 
hour. The "Igotz Mendi" had come off 
better. None of her plates were dented, she 
was making no water, and the only visible 
signs of damage to her were many twisted 
and bent stanchions on the port side that met 
the "Wolf." 

We had been allowed to send letters for 
Christmas — censored, of course, by the Ger- 
mans — to our "Hitachi" friends on the 
"Wolf," and when the two ships were along- 

92 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

side we were allowed to speak to them, 
though conversation under such conditions 
was very difficult, as one minute our friends 
would be sevei-al feet above us, and the next 
below us with the rolling" of the ship; and 
the noise of the coaling, shouting of orders, 
and roaring of the water between the ships 
was deafening. There did not seem much 
point in censoring letters, as the prisoners 
on the "Igotz Mendi" and the "Wolf were 
allowed to talk to each other a day or so 
after the letters were sent, and although a 
German sentry was on guard while those 
conversations were going on, it was possible 
for the prisoners to say what they liked to 
each other, as the sentry could only have 
caught an occasional word or two. 

I have since been asked why the prison- 
ers and Spaniards on the Spanish ship did 
not attack the prize crew and seize the ship 
when we were not in company with the 
*Wolf." It sounds quite simple, but it must 
be remembered that although the prize crew 
was certainly a small one, they were well 
supplied with arms, bombs, and hand gren- 

93 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

ades, while the prisoners and Spaniards had 
no arms at all, as they had all been taken 
away by the Germans. Furthermore, an 
attack of this kind would have been far worse 
than useless unless its absolute success could 
have been definitely assured. There were 
very few young and able men among the 
prisoners, while the German prize crew were 
all picked men, young and powerful. The 
working crew of the ship was composed of 
Spaniards and other neutrals, including a 
Greek and a Chilian. It would have been 
absolutely necessary to have secured the al- 
legiance and support of every one of these. 
The plan of seizing the ship, which sounds 
simple, was discussed among us many a 
time, but it was in reality quite impracticable. 
What would our fate have been if we had 
tried — and failed? And what of the women 
and children on board? 



94 



CHAPTER VIII 

WE had been encouraged by the Ger- 
mans to think — they had in fjact de- 
definitely told us — that the "Igotz 
Mendi" with us on board was to be sent to 
Spain when the Germans released her. This 
news greatly rejoiced the Spaniards, who 
had naturally become very depressed, more 
especially as they knew that if no news were 
received of them for six weeks after the date 
on which they were due at Colombo, a re- 
quiem mass would, according to Spanish 
custom, be said for them in their churches 
at home. 

On December twenty-ninth, all of which 
and the previous day, together with many 
succeeding days, were spent in transferring 
our cargo coal to our bunkers, the Germans 
on our ship and on the "Wolf" ostentatiously 
bade each other good-bye, and letters from 
prisoners on the "Wolf" were brought to 

95 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

US to post in Spain when we landed. The 
idea of the "Wolf" remaining out till the 
war was over in six months was abandoned, 
and we were told she would now go home 
to Germany. Why we were told this, the 
first time we had been informed of the 
"Wolf's" plans, we never knew, except that 
it might have been an excuse to keep drag- 
ging us over the seas, for the "Wolf' would 
never have allowed us to get ashore before 
she reached Germany. Now that we knew 
the Germans always intended taking us to 
Germany, it is obvious that it was quite im- 
material to them if they told us their plans. 
They wished to keep us, and having told 
us of their future plans, it is plain they could 
not afford to release us. 

But at that time we really began to think 
we were going to be landed in Spain, and 
the news raised the spirits of all of us. Those 
who had been learning Spanish before now 
did so with redoubled energy, and some of us 
even marked out on a pocket atlas our rail- 
way route from Bilbao or Cadiz — for the 
Spanish Captain thought it most Hkely we 

96 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

should be landed at one of those ports- 
through Spain and France. We even got in- 
formation from the Spaniards as to hotels, 
railways, and sights to see in Spain. It 
seemed as if the end of our cruise, with our 
freedom, were really in sight, especially as 
the Captain had told some of us on Decem- 
ber sixteenth that in six weeks our captivity 
would be over. Some of us, however, still 
inclined to the belief that the Germans 
would release the ship and order her back 
to Java or Colombo or Calcutta ; while others 
believed we should ultimately be landed in 
Dutch Guiana or Mexico, two of the few re- 
maining neutral countries left. 

On the last day of the year a rumor went 
round the ship that we should be taken far 
north — about 60° N. — to a point from which 
the "Wolf" would get to Germany before we 
could reach Spain. That, in the opinion of 
most of us, put an end to the prospect of 
landing in Spain. The Germans would run 
no risks of our giving information about the 
"Wolf." But this scheme would have left 
uneliminated one very important risk. After 

97 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

the ships would have separated, there was 
still a chance of the prize being intercepted 
by an Allied cruiser before the "Wolf" got 
home, and if that had happened, the "Wolf's" 
goose would have been cooked indeed. So 
Spain looked very improbable. I approached 
the Captain on the last day of the year and 
spoke to him on the point. He confirmed the 
rumor, and said we should be sent back and 
landed at a Spanish island, most probably 
Las Palmas. I made a vigorous, though I 
knew it would be quite a useless protest 
against this scheme. I pointed out that the 
ship, which by then would be almost empty, 
was not a suitable one in which to carry 
women and children into the North Atlantic 
in mid-winter gales, and that people who 
had spent many years in the tropics would 
not be able to stand such weather, unpro- 
vided as they were with winter clothing 
(although the Commander of the "Wolf" 
had certainly sent over some rolls of flan- 
nelette — stolen from the "Hitachi" — for the 
ladies to make themselves warm garments!) 
Also that in case of distress we could call 

98 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

for no help, as our wireless would only re- 
ceive and not send messages. The Captain 
brushed these complaints aside, saying the 
ship was in good trim and could stand any 
weather, that it would only be intensely cold 
on a very few days, that arrangements would 
be made that we should suffer as little from 
the cold as possible, and that there was very 
little liklihood of our being in distress. 

I then pointed out to him that our own 
Government prohibited our women from 
traveling through the submarine zone at all, 
but that he proposed to send them through 
it twice, and to give us a double dose of the 
North Atlantic at the very worst time of 
the year. He replied that going north we 
should go nowhere near the submarine zone, 
that he was just as anxious to avoid subma- 
rines as we were, and that when we parted 
far up in the North Atlantic, the "Igotz Men- 
di" would be given a "submarine pass' guar- 
anteeing her safety from attack by the U- 
boats, and special lights to burn at nights. I 
replied that I failed to see the use of a "sub- 
marine pass" as U-boats torpedoed at sight, 

f 
99 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 



and would not trouble to ask for a pass. He 
replied by asking me if I had ever heard of 
a neutral boat being torpedoed without 
warning. I answered that I had heard of 
such being done many times, and reminded 
him that the "Igotz Mendi" was painted the 
Allied gray color and therefore would not be 
recognized as a neutral but regarded by the 
U-boats as an enemy ship. He ended the 
interview by saying that he was carrying 
out the orders of the "Wolf's" Commander, 
and had no choice but to obey. This news 
of the "Wolf's" intentions angered us all, and 
we all felt that there was very little chance 
of ever seeing land again, unless an Allied 
cruiser came to our aid. We regarded this 
plan of the Germans as a deliberate one to 
sink us and the ship when they had got all 
they wanted out of her. 

The two ships had parted on the evening 
of the thirtieth, both going north, and we did 
not see the "Wolf" again till the morning 
of January fourth. She was then seen to 
be overhauling a ship on the horizon. We 
followed at a short distance and before long 



lOO 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

saw a ship in full sail. The "Wolf" 
approached her, spoke her, and to our in- 
tense astonishment released her. It seemed 
too good to be true that the "Wolf" would 
leave any ship she met quite unmolested, but 
so it was — for a short time. It was between 
ten and eleven when the "Wolf" and her prize 
proceeded on their original course and the 
sailing ship crossed our course astern. 
About one-thirty p.m. however, we changed 
our course and turned about. We were all 
mystified as to what was going to happen, 
until we saw a sail on the horizon. The 
"Wolf's" purpose was evident then. She 
was going back to destroy the ship whose 
existence she had forgiven in the morning. 
Imagine the feelings of the crew of her prey ; 
seeing the "Wolf" bearing down on them in 
the morning, their suspense as to their fate 
and that of their ship, their joy at their re- 
lease, and — here was the "Wolf" again! 
What would their fate be now ? The "Wolf" 
did not leave them long in doubt. She came 
up to her prize about five p.m. She was a 
"Wolfs" shipping register that she was 

lOI 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

four-masted bark in full sail, in ballast from 
the Cape to South America, and made a beau- 
tiful picture as she lay bathed in floods of 
golden light from the setting sun. Before 
dark, however, preparations had begun to 
remove her officers, crew and provisions, and 
this was completed in a few hours. We were 
invited by the Germans to stay up and see 
the end. We waited up till past eleven and 
saw lights flitting about the doomed ship, as 
the German sailors were removing some 
things, making fast others, and placing the 
bombs to blow her up. But none waited up 
for the end, which we heard took place after 
midnight. The ship first canted over, her 
sails resting on the water, righted herself 
and then slowly disappeared. It was a beau- 
tiful moonlight night for the commission of 
so dark a deed. The Germans afterwards 
told us that when the "Wolf" first spoke the 
bark, she gave her name and said she was a 
Norwegian ship, and so was released. The 
Germans had later discovered from the 
British owned before the war, and therefore 
to be destroyed. 

102 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

The Germans told us that on the bark they 
had seen some English newspapers, and in 
them was some news of the two men who 
had escaped from the "Wolf" near Sunday 
Island. One of them had died while swim- 
ming ashore — the other, after some weeks 
alone on the island, had been picked up by 
a Japanese cruiser. The news this man was 
able to give was the first that the outside 
world had known about the "Wolf" for many 
months, and the Germans realized that their 
enemies would be looking out for them and 
trying to prevent their return to Germany. 
This man would also be able to give an exact 
description of the "Wolf," the names of the 
ships she had captured before his escape, and 
the probable fate of other vessels since miss- 
ing. This, we felt, would bring at least a 
little comfort to our relatives, who might 
conclude we were on the raider and not hope- 
lessly lost, as they must have feared. 

We had hoped our captors might have put 
us all on the sailing ship and sent us off on 
her to South America, as the "Wolf" would 
have been well away and out of danger be- 

103 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDE'R 

fore we could have got ashore. But they did 
not entertain any such idea. Some of us re- 
quested that the lifeboats of the sailing ship 
might be sent over to our ship, as we had 
only two lifeboats, a couple of small dinghies, 
and an improvised raft, not sufficient for 
sixty-five people ; but the Germans would not 
send us these lifeboats, as they said th'ey 
were leaky! 

The question of baggage had to be again 
considered. It was evident we should be able 
to save very little, perhaps not even a hand- 
bag, if the ships were sunk by the Germans, 
and the prisoners put into the lifeboats. 
However, we ourselves packed in a handbag 
our most precious treasures we had brought 
from Siam. But in case it was impossible 
to save even so little, we collected the most 
valuable of our letters and papers and had 
them sewn up in sail cloth to put in our 
pockets. The King of Siam had conferred 
a decoration on me before I left — this was 
carefully packed and sewn up. I was de- 
termined to save this, if nothing else, though 
it seemed hopeless to expect to save many 

104 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

treasures, parting presents and addresses 
presented to me by my Siamese friends. 
Earlier in my service, the King of Siam had 
conferred another decoration on me, and I 
was carrying with me His Majesty's Royal 
License for this, signed by him, and also King 
George V's Royal License with his sign 
manual, giving me permission to accept and 
wear the decoration. Both of these docu- 
ments, together with others highly valued 
which I was also determined to save, were 
secured in water-tight cases, ready to be put 
in my pockets at the last moment. 

We remained in company of the "Wolf" 
for the next few days, and at seven p.m. on 
the tenth the "Wolf" again came alongside 
in the open sea and coaled from us till seven 
p.m. on the next day. Conditions were 
slightly better than on the previous occasion, 
but still quite sufficiently unpleasant. More 
fenders were lost and the "Wolf" was fur- 
ther damaged. The great uproar caused by 
the winches going all night, the periodic 
emptying of ashes dragged in iron buckets 
over the iron decks, the shifting of coal from 

105 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

the bunkers immediately underneath our 
cabins, and the constant bumping of the ships 
made sleep quite out of the question, and we 
were very glad indeed when the "Wolf" 
sheered off. On this occasion the way in 
which she came alongside and sheered off 
was a beautiful piece of seamanship. On the 
eleventh we again saw and spoke to our 
"Hitachi" friends on the "Wolf"— the last 
opportunity we had of doing so. On the next 
day we crossed the Equator and then for 
some days we saw the "Wolf" no more. 

About this time I experienced a little 
trouble with one of the German sailors. 
Most of them were courteous and kindly dis- 
posed, but one, a boorish, loutish bully who 
served us with drinks at table, was a painful 
exception to this. I complained to him once 
about not serving me properly. He waited 
outside the saloon and cursed me afterwards. 
"I, a German sailor," he said, "not your stew- 
ard!" I told him that if he had any reason 
to complain of what I had said or done he 
should report me to his Captain, and that if 
he had not done so by six that evening, I 

1 06 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

should report him for insolence. Needless to 
say, he said nothing to the Captain, so I re- 
ported him. The Captain at once thanked 
me for doing so, called him up at once, and 
gave him a good wigging. I had no more 
trouble from him afterwards. 

On January fourteenth I approached the 
Captain and asked him if the Germans on 
the "Wolf," when they got to Germany, 
would have any means of finding out whether 
we on the "Igotz Mendi" had safely arrived 
in Spain. He replied that they would. I then 
asked him whether, if we were all lost on the 
"Igotz Mendi" on her return voyage to Spain, 
the German Government would inform the 
British Government of our fate. He replied 
that would certainly be done. I further asked 
him whether we might send letters to the 
"Wolf* to have posted in Germany in the 
event of our not arriving in Spain. Most 
of us had to settle up our affairs in some 
way in case we might be lost at sea, and 
wished to write farewell letters to our home 
people. We ourselves had to write a fare- 
well letter to our daughter, born in Siam, 

107 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDEF 



from whom we had been separated, except 
for short periods of furlough spent in Eng- 
land, for twelve years. It seemed very hard 
that after this long separation, and just when 
we were looking forward to a joyful and 
fairly speedy reunion, we should perhaps 
never see her again. 

The Captain said we might write these 
letters, which would not be posted if the 
"Igotz Mendi" with us on board got back 
safely to Spain. "But," he added, "we have 
changed our plans, and now intend that you 
should be landed in Norway. It will be safer 
for you all, and you will not have to risk 
meeting our submarines in the Atlantic again. 
When we arrive in Norwegian waters, the 
German prize crew will be taken off the ship 
after the "Wolf" has got home, the ship will 
be handed over to the Spaniards, and you 
will all be landed in Norway, from where you 
can easily make your way to England. Here 
was quite a new plan — ^how much truth 
there was in this declaration will be seen 
hereafter. From now onwards definite 
promises began to be made to us concern- 

io8 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

ing the end of our captivity, "in a month you 
will be free," "the next full moon will be 
the last you will se at sea," etc., etc. 

We were now of course proceeding north 
every day, keeping in mid-Atlantic — always 
well off the trade routes, though of course 
we crossed some on our way north. On the 
nineteenth the Captain again thought he saw 
distant smoke on the horizon, and we 
careered about to avoid it as before. But on 
this occasion we were running away from 
a cloud! The next day we left the tropics, 
and with favorable weather were making an 
average of about 180 knots daily. On sev- 
eral days (about this time) we passed 
through, large masses of seawood, drifting 
from the Sargasso Sea. We did not meet 
the "Wolf" on the twenty-second as our 
Captain evidently expected to do, and we 
waited about for her several hours. But 
next day we did meet her, and we were then 
told that in eighteen days we should be 
ashore. We were then about 30'' N. and we 
parted from the "Wolf" the same afternoon. 
It was always a great relief to us all when 

109 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

we parted from her keeping our ship's com- 
pany of prisoners intact. For the men 
amongst us feared we might all be put upon 
the "Wolf" to be taken to Germany, leaving 
our wives on the "Igotz Mendi." This, so 
we had been told, had been the intention of 
the "Wolf's" Commander when the prisoners 
were first put on the Spanish boat. He had 
ordered that only women, and prisoners 
above sixty and under sixteen should be put 
on the "Igotz Mendi," but the German doc- 
tor, a humane and kindly man, would have 
nothing to do with this plan, and declared 
he would not be responsible for the health 
of the women if this were done. So that 
we owe it to him that wives were not sepa- 
rated from their husbands during this anx- 
ious time, as the Commander of the "Wolf" 
had inhumanely suggested. 



no 



CHAPTER IX 

A LAST effort was made to persuade 
the Captain to ask the "Wolfs" Com- 
mander to release the Spanish ship 
here, take all the prize crew off, and send 
us back to Cape Town, for a suspicion began 
to grow in our minds that Germany and no- 
where else was the destination intended for 
us. But our Captain would not listen to this 
suggestion, and said he was sure the Spanish 
Captain would not go back to Cape Town 
even if he promised to do so. 

On the next day, January twenty-fourth, 
relief seemed nearer than it had done since 
our capture four months before. I was sit- 
ting on the starboard deck, when suddenly 
I saw coming up out of the mist, close to 
our starboard bow, what looked like a 
cruiser with four funnels. The Spanish offi- 
cer on the bridge had apparently not seen 
it, or did not want to! Neither apparently 

III 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

had the German sailor, if, indeed, he was 
even on the bridge at that moment. I rushed 
to inform the American sailing ship Captain 
of my discovery, and he confirmed my opin- 
ion that it was a four-funnelled warship. 
The Germans were by this time fully alarmed 
and the ship slowed down a little; the Cap- 
tain, evidently also thinking that the vessel 
was a cruiser, went to his cabin to dispose of 
the ship's papers, the crew got into their best 
uniforms to surrender, and it looked as if 
help were at hand at last. We were all out 
on deck, delighted beyond words, and saw 
the ship — it must be remembered that it was 
a very misty day — resolve itself into two 
two-funnelled ships, apparently transports, 
one seemingly in distress and very much 
camouflaged, and the other standing by. 
Soon, however, they proceeded on their 
course and crossed our bows fairly close. We 
were then all ordered to our cabins, and we 
saw the two ships steam off to the westward, 
without having spoken to us or given any 
evidence of having seen us at all. 

It was a most bitter disappointment to us, 

113 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

comparable to that of shipwrecked sailors on 
a desert island watching a ship expected to 
deliver them pass out of sight. But it was 
a great relief to the Germans. We never 
discovered what ships they were, but the 
American said he believed them to be Amer- 
ican transports and that each mounted a gun. 
If only we had seen them the day before, 
when we were in the company of the "Wolf," 
they might have been suspicious, and prob- 
ably have been of some help to us. 

In the midde of the excitement the Spanish 
chief mate had rushed onto the bridge and 
into the wireless-room, and while the wire- 
less operator was out of the room, or his 
attention had been diverted, he took from 
their places all the six or eight bombs on 
board and threw them overboard. It was a 
plucky act, for had he been discovered by the 
armed sentry while doing it, he would have 
undoubtedly been shot on the spot. On the 
next day, on the morning of which he saw 
two sailing ships far distant, an inquiry was 
held as to the disappearance of the bombs, 
which would of course have been used to sink 

113 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

the ship, and the chief mate owned up. He 
said that he did it for the sake of the women 
and children on board as the sea was rough 
their lives would have been in danger if they 
had been put in the lifeboats when the ship 
was bombed. He was confined to his cabin 
for the rest of the voyage, and later sen- 
tenced by the Commander of the "Wolf" to 
three years' imprisonment in Germany and 
a fine of two thousand marks. From this 
time on all the Spanish officers were relieved 
of their duties. 

The Germans had told us that, in the event 
of the prize being captured while the weather 
was rough, the ship would not be bombed or 
sunk, as they had no desire to endanger the 
lives of the women or children amongst us. 
In fact, so they said, the ship would not be 
bombed under any conditions when once the 
"Wolf" had got all the coal she wanted. It 
was indeed difficult to see what purpose 
would be served by the Germans in sinking 
the Spanish ship, if she were overhauled by 
an Allied cruiser. The Allies could not keep 
her, as she would have to be restored to Spain 

114 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

— the Germans said they would not keep her, 
but return her to her owners. To have de- 
Hberately sunk her would only have meant a 
gratuitous offense to Spain. Nevertheless 
the next time we met the "Wolf" a new sup- 
ply of bombs and hand grenades was put on 
board our ship. At the same time an extra 
Lieutenant came on board, additional neu- 
trals were sent over to help work the ship, 
and the prize crew was increased from nine 
to nineteen. All the prize crew now wore 
caps and the words "S. M. S. Otter" inscribed 
thereon. 

The Kaiser's birthday, which fell on a 
Sunday, was marked by a most terrific 
storm. The wind was raging for hours at 
a hurricane force between eleven and 
twelve, the seas were between thirty and 
forty feet high and it seemed impossible that 
the ship could live in such a sea. But not- 
withstanding terrible rolling, she shipped 
very little water, but all of the prisoners 
were alarmed at the rough weather and the 
rolling of the ship. From this day onwards 
we lived in a condition of great misery and 

115 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

death stared us in the face many times. It 
got colder and colder every day for a con- 
siderable time ; the food got worse and worse 
and we were on short rations; the ship be- 
came more and more dirty, smokes ran 
short, — only some ancient dusty shag 
brought from Germany by the "Wolf," and 
some virulent native tobacco from New 
Guinea remained — and conditions generally 
became more and more beyond endurance. 
Darkness fell early in these far northern 
latitudes, and the long nights were very 
dreary and miserable. Sundays seemed to 
be the days on which the worst storms oc- 
curred, though on very few of the days from 
this time onwards did we have anything but 
extremely dirty weather. On February fifth 
we again met the "Wolf" — we had sighted 
her on the evening of the fourth, but it was 
too rough then to communicate. With the 
"Wolf's" usual luck the weather moderated 
next day, and the ships stopped. Just as the 
Germans on land always seemed to get the 
weather they wanted, so they were equally 

ii6 



A CAPTIVE ON A GER MAN RAIDER 

favored at sea. This was noticed over and 
over again. 

Those v^ho had written letters to be sent 
on the "Wolf" sent them over on this day, 
and the Spanish chief mate expected to be 
sent aboard the "Wolf," as we might not 
meet her again. Luckily for him, however, 
he was not transferred, and neither he nor 
we ever saw the "Wolf" again, after the 
morning of February sixth. 

We heard from the "Wolf" that she was 
getting very short of food, and that there 
was much sickness, including many cases of 
scurvy, on board. Some of the prisoners, we 
knew, had very little clothing, and positively 
none for cold weather, and our hearts were 
sore at the thought of so many of our fellow- 
countrymen, many of whom we had known 
in good and ill fortune, being taken into 
captivity in Germany. 

The next day we entered the Arctic circle. 
The cold was intense and the cabins were 
icy, the temperature falling as low as 14" F. 
in some of them. There was no heating ap- 

"7 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

paratus on the ship, with the exception of a 
couple of small heating pipes in the saloon. 
The cabin curtains froze to the ports ; all the 
cabin roofs leaked and it was impossible to 
keep the floors and bedding dry; and in our 
cabin, in addition, we had water constantly- 
flowing and swishing backwards and for- 
wards between the iron deck of the ship and 
the wooden floor of the cabin. This oozed 
up through the floor and accumulated under 
the settee, and on many nights we emptied 
five or six buckets full of icy water from 
under the settee which had also to be used 
as a bed. At last I persuaded the Captain 
to allow one of the sailors to drill a hole in 
the side of the cabin so that water could 
have an outlet on to the deck. Since the 
great storm on the Kaiser's birthday our feet 
had never been dry or warm, and were in this 
condition till some hours after we got ashore. 
The ports of the cabins had all long ago been 
painted black in order that no light might 
show through at night. We had to sit in 
these cold and dark cabins during the day. 
The weather prevented us from being on the 

ii8 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

deck, which was often covered with frost 
and snow, and often there was nowhere else 
to sit. The electric light was on for only a 
limited time each day, so, as the ports could 
not be opened on the account of the cold, we 
asked and obtained permission to scratch a 
little of the paint off the ports in our cabin. 
This made things a little more bearable, but 
it can easily be imagined how people who 
had been living in tropical climates for many 
years fared under such conditions. It was 
nothing short of cruel to expose women and 
children to this after they had been dragged 
in captivity over the seas for many months. 
The Captain had ordered a part of the bunk- 
ers to be cleared, so that the prisoners might 
sit there in the cold weather. But the place 
was so dirty and uncomfortable and difficult 
of access, in addition to its being in darkness, 
and quite unprovided with seats, that most 
of the prisoners preferred the crowded little 
saloon. 

On the morning of February seventh we 
for the first time encountered ice floes, when 
attempting the northern passage between 

119 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

Greenland and Iceland. About eleven a.m. 
we stopped and hooted for the "Wolf" as a 
fog had come on, the first time we had heard 
a steamer's siren since the day of our cap- 
ture. We waited for some hours in the 
ice, but no answering signal came back, so 
the Captain decided to turn back as he 
thought it impossible to force his way 
through the ice. We therefore went back 
again on our course, the Captain hoping that 
the wind would change and cease blowing 
the ice floes from off the shores of Green- 
land. After a day or two of slow steaming 
on this course we resumed our attempt to 
go to the north of Iceland, evidently to 
escape the attention of the British ships 
which the Germans expected to encounter 
between the south of Iceland and the Faroes. 
But before long it became evident that ice 
was still about, and in the darkness of the 
early morning of February eleventh we 
bumped heavily against ice several times. 
This time the Captain abandoned his attempt 
to go through the northern pasage, and turn- 
ed the ship round to try his luck in the pas- 

120 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

sage he did not expect to be so free from Bri- 
tish attentions. 

We thought perhaps that as we were on 
short rations and water was running short 
and the case of us all really desperate, the 
Captain would land us and give up the ship 
at Reykjavik, leaving us there to be rescued. 
Even a stay in Iceland would be better than 
one in Germany, for which country we now 
all suspected we were bound. 

To add to our miseries, the Captain told 
us on February eleventh for the first time 
that it was, and always had been the inten- 
tion to take us on the "Igotz Mendi" to 
Germany, there to be interned in civilian pris- 
oners' camps. He told us too, that the 
women and those of the men over military 
age would be released at once, but we all 
declined to believe anything else our captors 
told us, as they had deliberately and repeat- 
edly deceived us by assuring us at various 
times that they were going to land us in 
Spain, or Norway, or some other neutral 
country. 

At daybreak on the eleventh we were still 

121 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

among ice floes, but going away from instead 
of meeting them, and on that morning we 
saw in the distance the coast of Iceland, the 
first land that we had seen since the Maldive 
Islands, a week after our capture, i.e. more 
than four months before. We also saw a 
few fishing boats off the coast. 

We now shaped a course for the coast of 
Norway, keeping to the north of the Faroes. 
On Sunday, the seventeenth, we again ran 
into a very heavy storm. Ever since the 
storm on January twenty-seventh the pro- 
peller had been constantly racing and send- 
ing shudders through the ship from stem to 
stern. On this day this feature, which was 
always disconcerting and to a certain extent 
alarming, became more marked, and the 
thud with which the ship met the seas more 
and more loud, so loud indeed that on one 
occasion the Captain thought we had struck 
a mine and rushed from the saloon to the 
bridge to ascertain what damage had been 
done. The Captain and crew had by this 
time become very anxious as to the fate of 
the "Wolf," as no news had been received 

122 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

concerning her. Day after day on which the 
Captain told us he expected news went by 
without any being received. But on the 
evening of the nineteenth the Captain in- 
formed us that he had received a wireless 
message announcing the safe arrival of the 
"Wolf" at a German port. The Germans 
seemed singularly little elated at the news, 
and hardly ever mentioned the subject again 
after that evening. This was so different 
from what we had expected that most of the 
prisoners did not believe the "Wolf" had got 
home. We hoped that she had been inter- 
cepted and captured by a British cruiser, 
and that with any luck a similar fate might 
be in store for us. 

The "Wolf" had certainly made a wonder- 
ful cruise and the Germans were naturally 
very proud of it. They had successfully 
evaded the enemy for fifteen months, and 
had kept their ship in good repair, for they 
had first-class mechanics and engineers on 
board. But she must have been very 
weather-worn and partly crippled before she 
arrived at a home port. She had touched at 

1-3 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

no port or no shore from the day she left 
Germany till the day she returned to the 
Fatherland. She had sunk seven steamers 
and seven sailing ships, and claimed many 
more ships sunk as a result of her mine- 
laying. Beside the prizes already named she 
had captured the "Tarantelle," "Words- 
worth," "Jumna," "Dee," "Winslow," and 
"Encore," the last three of v^hich were sail- 
ing vessels. Her first prize, the "Tarantelle," 
taken in February, 1917, in the Indian Ocean, 
was originally a German ship captured by 
the British. On her recapture by the Ger- 
mans, she was equipped as a raider and mine- 
layer and sent off on an expedition by her- 
self. But soon afterwards she came to grief 
near Aden "through enemy action." 



124 



CHAPTER X 

THE Germans were now getting- very 
anxious as they approached the block- 
ade zone, They affected, however, to 
believe that there was no blockade, and that 
there was no need of one now that America 
was in the war. "No one will trade with 
us," they said, "accordingly there is no need 
for a blockade." Nevertheless they were at 
great pains to keep as far as possible from 
any place in which British ships might ap- 
pear. But unfortunately not one did appear, 
here or anywhere else, to rescue us, although 
we felt certain in our own minds that some 
of our ships would be present and save us 
in these parts of the seas which we believed 
were regularly patrolled. It was a bitter 
disappointment to us that we saw none. But 
as some of the passengers remarked to the 
Captain, "If there is no blockade, as the 
Germans say, why haven't you more raiders 

125 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

out, instead of only one, and why have so 
few been able to come out?" There was of 
course no answer to this ! The Captain fur- 
ther remarked that even if there were a 
blockade it would always be possible to get 
through it at the week-end, as all the British 
blockading fleet returned to port for that 
time! The "Wolf," he said, "came out and 
got home through the blockade at the week- 
end. It was quite simple, we were to do the 
same, and we should be escorted by subma- 
rines as the "Wolf" had been on both occa- 
sions. 

On the twentieth we were off Bergen and 
saw the coast in the distance. I suggested 
to the Captain that it would save much 
trouble if he would land us there. He smil- 
ingly replied that he would very much like 
to, but was afraid it was quite impossible! 
The next day we were nearer the coast and 
saw a couple of suspicious-looking steam 
trawlers which gave the Germans a few 
anxious moments, and on that night we en- 
countered the greatest storm we experienced 
on the cruise. The wind was terrific, huge 

126 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

seas broke over the ship, the alleyway out- 
side the cabins was awash all the night, and 
the water even invaded the saloon to a small 
extent. Articles and receptacles for water 
that had not been made absolutely fast in the 
cabins were tossed about ; many cabins were 
drenched and running with water. The noise 
of the wind howling and the seas breaking 
on the deck was so alarming to those in the 
outside cabins that they left them and assem- 
bled in the saloon, though sleep that night 
was utterly impossible, there or anywhere 
else on the ship. The ship, though steaming 
full speed, made no progress that night, but 
went back, and in three days, the nineteenth, 
twentieth and twenty-first, made only a hun- 
dred knots. 

After such stormy nights, and in such 
bitter cold weather, a breakfast of cold 
canned crab, or dry bread with sugar, or rice 
and hot water plus a very little gravy, or 
bread and much-watered condensed milk, 
was not very nourishing or satisfying, but 
very often that was all we had. This 
weather of course pleased the German Cap- 

127 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

tain, who said that no enemy ship would or 
could board him under such conditions. In 
fact, he said no enemy vessel would be out 
of port in such weather! The weather 
alone was sufficiently terrifying to the lands- 
men amongst us, and the prospect of having 
to take to the lifeboats at any moment if 
the Germans took it into their heads to sink 
the ship were she sighted by an enemy ves- 
sel, added to the fears of all of us. There 
had been no boat drill, and the lifeboat ac- 
commodation was hopelessly inadequate for 
the more than eighty people now on board. 
It is certain that with the mixed crew there 
would have been a savage fight for the boats. 
The prospect was alarming from any point 
of view, and one of the greatest aniexty for 
us all. Physical distress and discomfort were 
not the only things we had to contend with — 
the nervous strain was also very great. 

On February twenty-second we rounded 
the Naze. Here we thought we should cer- 
tainly come across some British vessel. But 
that day and the next passed — it seemed as 
if we, too, were to get in during the week- 

128 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

end ! — and hope of rescue disappeared. Many 
messages had been dropped overboard in 
bottles and attached to spars, etc., during the 
voyage, but all apparently in vain. The 
bearing of the Germans towards us became 
markedly changed. We w^ere almost in their 
clutches now, the arrival at Kiel and transfer 
to Ruhleben were openly talked of, and our 
captors showed a decided inclination to 
jeer at us and our misfortunes. We were 
told that all diaries, if we kept them, must 
be destroyed, or we should be severely pun- 
ished when we arrived in Germany. Accord- 
ingly, those of us who had kept diaries made 
ready to destroy them, but fortunately did 
not do so. I had written mine in Siamese 
characters during the whole time, so the 
Germans could not have gained much in- 
formation from it. 

Sunday, February twenty-fourth dawned, 
a cold, cheerless day. "I suppose this time 
next week we shall be going to church in 
Kiel," said one of the prisoners to the chief 
mate at breakfast. "Or," the latter replied, 
"I might be going to church with my brother, 

129 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

who is already a prisoner on the Isle of 
Man !" We were now in comparatively nar- 
row waters of the Skagerrak, and we saw 
only one vessel here, a Dutch fishing boat. 
Our last chance had nearly gone. Most of us 
were now resigned to our fate and saw no 
hope — in fact, I had written in my diary 
the day before "There is no hope left, no boat 
of ours to save us" — but some said we still 
might see a British war vessel when we 
rounded the Skaw. At mid-day the sailor on 
the lookout came into the saloon and re- 
ported to the Captain that a fog was coming 
on. "Just the weather I want," he exclaimed. 
"With this lovely fog we shall round the 
Skaw and get into German waters unob- 
served." It looked, indeed, as if our arrival 
in Germany were now a dead certainty. 

But the fog that the Captain welcomed 
was just a little too much for him; it was 
to prove his undoing instead of his salvation. 
The good old German Gott about whom we 
had heard so much was not going to see them 
through this time. For once, we were to be 
favored. The white fog thickened after the 

130 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

mid-day meal, and luckily for us, it was im- 
possible to see far ahead. Soon after two 
we passed a floating mine, and we knew that 
before long we should be going through a 
mine field — not a very cheerful prospect with 
floating mines round us in a fog. But we 
were all too far gone to care now; nothing 
could be much worse than imprisonment in 
Germany, and some of us gathered together 
in our cold and gloomy cabin were discussing 
the prospects and condition of this when, at 
three-thirty on that Sunday afternoon, we 
felt a slight bump, as if the ship had 
touched bottom. Then another bump, and 
then still one more ! We were fast ! Were 
we really to be saved at the very last minute? 
It began to look like it, like the beginning 
of the end, but it would not do to build too 
much on this slender foundation. The en- 
gines continued working, but no progress 
was made; they were reversed — still no 
movement. The fog was fairly thick but we 
could just make out through it the line of 
the shore and the waves breaking on it some 
distance away. Two sirens were going at 

131 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

full blast, one from a lightship and one from 
a lighthouse. 

The German officers became agitated ; with 
great difficulty a boat was got out, soundings 
made, and various means adopted to work 
the ship off, but all were of no avail. The 
Captain admitted that his charts of this par- 
ticular spot were not new and not good. It 
was impossible to tell the state of the tide 
at this moment; we all hoped it might be 
high tide, for then our rescue would be cer- 
tain. The engines were set to work from time 
to time, but no movement could be made. 
Darkness fell, and found us still stuck fast. 
Our spirits had begun to rise, the prospect 
was distinctly brighter, and soon after six 
o'clock the Assistant Lieutenant went ashore 
in mufti to telephone to the nearest port, 
Frederikshavn, for help. What reply he re- 
ceived we never heard, but we did hear that 
he reported he was on a German ship bound 
from Bergen to Kiel and wanted help. 
Lourenco Marquez to Kiel, via Iceland, 
would have been nearer the truth! 

About eight o'clock we heard from one of 

132 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

the neutrals among the crew that the Cap- 
tain of a salvage tug was shortly coming 
aboard to inquire into matters. The ladies 
among us decided to stay in the saloon while 
the Captain of the tug interviewed the Ger- 
man Captain in the chartroom above it. On 
the arrival of the tug the Captain on the 
bridge, the ladies in the saloon created a 
veritable pandemonium, singing, shrieking 
and laughing at the top of their voices. It 
sounded more like a Christmas party than 
one of desperate prisoners in distress. The 
Danish Captain departed ; what had been the 
result of his visit we did not know, but at 
any rate he knew there were women on 
board. The German Captain came down into 
the saloon, asked pleasantly enough what all 
the noise was about, and said, "I have offered 
the salvage people £5,000 to tow the ship 
off; money is nothing to us Germans. This 
will be done at four tomorrow morning, and 
we shall then proceed on our way to Kiel." 
Some of us had talked over a plan sug- 
gested by the second mate of a captured ship, 
by which one of the neutrals among the crew 

133 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

should contrive to go ashore in one of the 
tug's boats in the darkness and communicate 
with the nearest British Consul, informing 
him of the situation and the desperate case 
we were in. We promised him £500 to be 
raised among the "saloon passengers," if by 
so doing our rescue should be accomplished. 
We had remained in the saloon to talk 
over developments when we heard that a 
Danish gunboat had come nearly alongside, 
and that her Commander was coming on 
board. He had presumably received a report 
from the Captain of the tug. We heard 
afterwards that he had his suspicions about 
the ship and had brought with him on board 
one of his own men to make inquiries of the 
crew, among whom were Norwegians, 
Swedes and Danes, while he kept the Ger- 
man Commander busy in the saloon. The 
previous mistake of taking the Danish Cap- 
tain on to the bridge was not to be repeated. 
The Commander of the gunboat was to come 
into the saloon, so the ladies could not re- 
main there and make their presence known. 
But some of them contrived to leave some 

134 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

of their garments on the table and settee 
in the saloon — a muff, hats, gloves, etc. 
These the Danish Commander must have 
seen; and not only that, for he saw some 
ladies who had stood in one door of the 
saloon before they were sent to their cabins, 
when he entered at the other one. He also 
saw a passenger in khaki uniform, the Aus- 
tralian Major of the A.M.C., and other pas- 
sengers standing with the ladies in the alley- 
way. If he had entertained any suspicions as 
to the correct character of the ship, which 
the Germans were of course trying to con- 
ceal, they must have been strongly con- 
firmed by now. It was now too late for us 
to be sent to our cabins, as a German sailor 
came and ordered. We had achieved our 
object. 

It was a night of great unrest, but finally 
most of us lay down in our clothes. For 
very many nights we had been unable to 
rest properly owing to the violence of the 
weather, the possibility of having to leave 
the ship at any moment, and our general 
anxiety concerning our desperate condition. 

135 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

We had not had our clothes off for many- 
days. At four a.m. we heard the engines 
working, as the Captain had told us they 
would, but still no movement could be heard. 
Soon the engines ceased; it was evident 
then that the attempt to get the ship off 
must for the present be given up. The wind 
was rising, and the sea getting rougher, and 
at six a.m. a German sailor came and 
knocked at the door of all the cabins, saying, 
"Get up, and pack your baggage and go 
ashore." It was too good to be true — never 
was an order more willingly and gladly 
obeyed! But first we had to see how the 
ship stood with regard to the shore ; we went 
out on deck to look — there was the blessed 
green shore less than half a mile away, the 
first really solid earth we had been close 
to since we left Colombo exactly five months 
before. Only those who have seen nothing 
but the sea for many months can imagine 
with what a thrill of joy we saw the shore, 
and realized that we were saved at last. We 
had seen the sea under nearly every aspect 
possible from the Equator to the Arctic re- 

T36 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

gions, and we had appreciated more than 
ever before its vastness. Not many of us 
wished for sea travel again. 

It did not take us long to dress and throw 
our things into our bags. When we had 
done so and were ready to go to the lifeboat, 
we were told that we might take no bag- 
gage whatever, as the lifeboat was from a 
shore station and could save lives only, not 
baggage. 

The German Captain took his bad luck in 
good part, but he was of course as sick as 
we were rejoiced at the turn events had 
taken. He had known the night before that 
he could get no help from the Danish author- 
ities, as they refused towing assistance till 
all the passengers had been taken off the 
ship. But he had hoped to get off unaided 
at four in the morning. He professed great 
anger with the Danes, saying that if they 
had only helped as he requested, the ship 
could have been towed off in the night, and 
we with all our baggage could have been 
landed at a Danish port alongside a pier the 
next mornmg, instead of having to leave all 

137 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

our baggage behind on the ship. I fancy not 
many of us believed this ; if the ship had been 
got off we should have brought up at Kiel 
and not at any Danish port. And, as the tug 
Captain said afterwards, if he had towed 
the ship off the Germans probably would 
have cut the hawser directly afterwards, 
he would have received no pay for his work, 
and we certainly should not have landed in 
Denmark. 



138 



CHAPTER XI 

A FINE lifeboat manned by sturdy- 
Danish sailors was alongside the ship ; 
the sea was very rough, but our ship 
steady, firmly embedded in the sandy bottom. 
The packages we had decided to save at any 
cost were put in our pockets, lifebelts and 
life-saving waistcoats once more put on, and 
once more we all climbed a ship's ladder, but 
as the lifeboat was rising and falling almost 
the height of the ship with the heavy seas, 
descent into it was not easy. But nothing 
mattered now; once over the side of the ship 
we were no longer in German hands, and 
were free! The waves dashed over and 
drenched us as we sat in the lifeboat; we 
were sitting in icy water, all of us more or 
less wet through.. At last the lifeboat crew 
pulled for the shore, the high seas sweeping 
over us all the way. We grounded on the 
beach, the sturdy sailors carried some, others 

139 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAlDER 

jumped into the water and waded ashore, and 
we were all on terra firma, free at last, after 
weary months of waiting and captivity. 
Groups of villagers were waiting on the 
beach to welcome us even at this early hour. 
They plied us with questions as far as they 
could, and great was their wonder at what 
we had to tell. 

We had been saved at the eleventh hour, 
almost the fifty-ninth minute of it ; we were 
at the very gates of Germany, being due at 
Kiel the very next day. It was a miraculous 
escape if ever there was one, and came at a 
moment when all hope had gone. Would 
that the "Wolf" had gone ashore in the same 
place! All our fellow-countrymen on board 
her would then have been free and they could 
have given information and saved us as well. 

What emotions surged within us as we 
trod the free earth once more ! What had we 
not gone through since we were last on 
shore! Then it was on British soil; now it 
was on the soil of a friendly neutral country. 
We had escaped imprisonment with the ene- 
my, escaped making acquaintance with the 

140 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

notorious Ruhleben of evil fame — the more 
we reflected on it, and we did so every minute, 
the more wonderful did our escape appear. 
But our thoughts also turned to our friends 
on the "Wolf" who were doomed to meet 
the cruel fate from which we had so merci- 
fully been delivered. 

Once on dry land, and escorted by the 
villagers, we walked over the sandhills to 
the lighthouse about half a mile away. There 
we were received with open arms. The 
kindly Danes could not do enough for us. 
We had only what we stood up in; we dried 
our clothes, other dry garments were offered 
us, hot drinks and food were supplied liber- 
ally, and we were generally made much of. 
We had come back to life and warmth once 
more. The lighthouse staff and villagers vied 
with each other in their effort-* to make us 
feel at home and comfortable, and after in- 
terviews with some Danish Government offi- 
cial, we were taken to hotels in Skagen, the 
name of the nearest town, a small summer 
bathing resort, just to the south of the 
Skaw. After lunch, the first square meal we 

141 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

had had for months, we set off to telegraph 
to our relatives and friends, and announce 
we were still in the world. It was one of our 
greatest anxieties on board that we could 
not communicate with our friends, who we 
knew would be grieving over our disappear- 
ance and, we feared, would have given us up 
for lost. 

The same afternoon we walked back to 
the beach to see if we could go aboard the 
the stranded ship to retrieve our luggage, 
but the sea was far too rough to allow of 
this, and the German and Spanish crew had 
not been taken off. While on the beach we 
saw two floating mines exploded by a Danish 
gunboat. We had not only had a narrow 
escape from the Germans but also from the 
dangers of a mine field. The next day was 
also rough for us to go aboard, in fact it 
was so rough that the lifeboat went out and 
and took everybody off the ship, both Spanish 
and German. The Spanish first mate was 
thus saved and after all did not serve his sen- 
tence in Germany. It was reported that a 
German submarine appeared to take off the 

142 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

German officers on this day, but as it was too 
rough to lower the boats this could not be 
contrived. 

The 'Igotz Mendi" was now deserted, but 
as the Danish authorities had adjudged her, 
twenty-four hours after her stranding, to be 
a Spanish ship, she had reverted to her orig- 
inal owners. Accordingly, before leaving her 
the Spanish Captain had hoisted the Spanish 
flag at her stern, the first time that or any 
other flag had appeared there since that No- 
vember morning when the Germans had cap- 
tured her far away in the Indian Ocean. She 
was no longer a German prize. She would 
have been the only one the "Wolf" had secur- 
ed to take home — a neutral ship with only a 
few tons of coal on board, and a few mar- 
ried couples, and sick and elderly men as 
prisoners. Not much to show for a fifteen 
month's cruise, and even that was denied 
the Germans; though the "Wolf" had cer- 
tainly carried home a valuable cargo, and 
some hundreds of prisoners, besides doing 
considerable damage to the shipping of the 
Allies. 

143 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

The position of the stranded ship was a 
unique one. She was a neutral ship, a Ger- 
man prize, stranded in neutral waters, with 
a cre-^ composed of Germans and neutral 
prisoners, and carrying passenger prisoners 
of many enemy nationalities — English, Aus- 
tralian, American, Japanese, Chinese and 
Indian. 

Never was there a more dramatic turning 
of the tables; the Germans were now in- 
terned, and we were free. The German offi- 
cers were sent off under guard to an inland 
town, and the sailors sent to a camp in 
another part of Denmark. The sailors did 
not attempt to disguise their joy at the turn 
events had taken. On their return to Ger- 
many they would have had a few weeks' 
leave, and then done duty in a submarine, or 
at the front. Now, they were interned in a 
land where there was at least much more 
to eat than they could have hoped for in Ger- 
many, and their dangers were at an end till 
the war was over. They were marched under 
an armed guard of Danes, up and down the 
village street several times on one of these 

144 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

days ; they were all smiles, singing as they 
marched along. 

The next day a hurricane was still blow- 
ing, and going aboard was still out of the 
question. The ship was blown further in 
shore and it began to look as if she would 
break up and we should see nothing of our 
personal belongings. The day after, how- 
ever, was beautifully fine, and we left Skagen 
Harbor in two motor-barges and boarded 
the ship, which was in charge of the Danish 
authorities. After some difficulty, for the 
ship was in a state of great chaos, we secured 
all our baggage, which was landed that night 
at Skagen much to our relief, as up to that 
time we had only what we stood up in at the 
time we landed from the lifeboat. We had 
set foot on the "Igotz Mendi" for the last 
time. 

During the week we had to give evidence 
to the Danish authorities concerning our 
capture and treatment on board. We were 
overwhelmed with kindness by the Danes 
who made no secret of their sympathies with 
the Allies; invitations to dinners and parties 

145 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

flowed in, and we could not have accepted 
them all if we had stayed as many weeks as 
we had days. 

On Friday, March first, most of us left 
Skagen. The whole village turned out to 
give us a good send off, and snapshots galore 
were taken — this indeed had been going on 
ever since we landed. The ladies among us 
were presented with flowers and chocolates, 
the men with smokes, and we left with the 
heartiest good wishes of our warm-hearted 
hosts. From Skagen our passage home was 
arranged by the British Consular authorities. 
We stayed a few days in Copenhagen and 
then traveled through Sweden and Norway, 
leaving a port somewhere in that country for 
another somewhere in this, and so to London, 
where we arrived in a characteristic pea- 
soup fog on the morning of March tenth, 
after incessant traveling by train and sea for 
a week. We had not relished another sea 
voyage — and one across the North Sea least 
of all — but there was no help for it. We 
feared that as we had escaped the Germans 
pnce, they might make a special effort to 

14^ 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

sink us crossing the North Sea. But for- 
tunately the U-boats left us alone, though 
few, if any of us, turned in during those last 
few nights. 

No comment need be made on the German 
procedure of dragging their prisoners month 
after month over the oceans. Such a thing 
had never been done before. The Germans 
had had opportunities to release us, but had 
taken none to do so, as they had evidently 
determined not to allow any account of the 
"Wolfs" cruise to be made known. They 
might have landed the "Hitachi" prisoners 
on the Maldives and left them there to get 
to Colombo as best they could, the Germans 
taking the ship; they might have sent the 
prisoners on the "Igotz Mendi" to Colombo 
or Java after they had taken what coal they 
wanted. As the Spanish Captain said, they 
had a right to take his contraband, but not 
his ship. But a question of right did not 
bother the Germans. Many times fney prom- 
ised him to release his ship, never intending 
to do so. Whenever they were asked why 
they did not release us wheji we thought it 

147 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

possible jthey always advanced "military rea- 
sons" as the excuse. "That," as I said to the 
Captain, "covers a multitude of sins." The 
Commander of the "Wolf" had personally 
assured the married couples on the "Ma- 
tunga" that they would be kept no longer 
than two months. But they were kept seven. 
Some men had been kept prisoners on the 
"Wolf" for nearly a year. 

It was hard enough on the men, but in- 
finitely worse for the women. One had been 
eight months, one seven, and others five 
months in captivity, often under the worst 
])Ossible conditions. But they all kept cheer- 
ful throughout, even when it appeared that 
they were certain to be taken with their hus- 
bands into Germany. 

Every man is likely to think under such 
conditions that he is in a worse case than 
his fellow-captives, and there were certainly 
examples of very hard luck amongst us. The 
American Captain had abandoned his sea- 
calling for six years, and decided at his wife's 
request, to make one more trip and take 
her to see her relatives in Newcastle, N.S.W, 

148 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

They never got there, but had eight months 
of captivity and landed in Denmark instead. 
Many sailors had left the Atlantic trade after 
encounters w^ith the U-boats in that ocean, 
only to be caught by the "Wolf in the Pa- 
cific. One of the members of the Spanish 
crew had been a toreador, but his mother 
considered that calling too dangerous and 
recommended the sea as safer. Her son nov^ 
thinks otherv^ise, perhaps she does, too! 

The Captain of a small sailing ship from 
Mauritius to West Australia, in ballast to 
load timber, saw the "Wolf" when a day 
off his destination. Not knowing her, he 
foolishly ran up the red ensign — a red rag 
to a bull, indeed — and asked the "Wolf" to 
report him "all well" at the next port. The 
"Wolf" turned about and sunk his little ship. 
Although the Captain was at one time on the 
"Wolf" almost in sight of his home in Mauri- 
tius, his next port was Kiel, where it is to 
be feared that he, an old man of seventy, is 
the reverse of "all well." 

One of our fellow prisoners had been on 
the P. & O. Hner "Mongolia" when she was 

149 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

sunk by one of the "Wolf's" mines off Bom- 
ba}^ Later, on the "Hitachi," he was caught 
by the mine-layer herself! But he defeated 
the enemy -^ter all, as he escaped on the 
"Igotz Mendi." One of the seafaring men 
with us had already been torpedoed by the 
Huns in the Channel. Within a fortnight he 
was at sea again. The next time he was 
caught and his ship sunk by the "Wolf" off 
New Zealand. He also escaped on the 
"Igotz Mendi," and when last seen ashore 
was dying to get to sea again, in a warm 
corner, he said, so that he could "strafe the 
Huns" once more. They had held him pris- 
oner for eight months and he had some lee- 
way to make up. 

I thought until our timely rescue came, 
that our own case was a fairly hard one. I 
had retired after spending twenty years in 
Government service in Siam, and we had 
decided to spend some months at least, pos- 
sibly "the duration," in South Africa before 
proceeding home. It seemed hard lines that 
after twenty years in the Far East we were 
to come to Europe only to be imprisoned in 

J 50 



A CAPTIVE ON A GERMAN RAIDER 

Germany! We have escaped that, but our 
plans have gone hopelessly astray, our health 
has not been improved by the treatment on 
our long voyage, and although we took six 
months to get from Siani to London, the Ger- 
mans have succeeded in getting us home 
much earlier than we, or they, anticipated. 
I had been shipwrecked on my first voyage 
out to Siam in 1897, and taken prisoner on 
my last voyage home twenty years after. 
Fortunately, one usually forgets the mis- 
eries of sea travel soon after one gets ashore. 
But never, I think, will one of us ever forget 
our captivity at sea with our enemies, or the 
canned crab, the bully beef, the beans, and 
the roll of the "Igotz Mendi." 

THE END 



151 



How five thousand men founded a Brit- 
ish community in the heart of Germany. 

INTERNED IN GERMANY 

By H. C. MAHONEY 

Sgo pages. Illustrated. $2.00 net. 



IF you would know what life at a German 
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book. The author, a British civilian, was 
a guest at four, ending up with a long sojourn 
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munity life, and established stores, banks, 
churches, theatres — in fact all the appurten- 
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ous stories of escapes, of adventures in the 
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)rhe book shows a side of the war which 
has not previously been dealt with in full 
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hardship and suffering and of the many ways 
in which the indomitable spirit of these men 
rose above the trials of prison life. 

Publishers, Robert M. McBride & Co., New York 




300 Paeres of Exciting ^^^.^^l^sH '"* ^* Great Game 

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SECRET AGENT 

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With i6 pages of illustrations. 
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FOR ten years Captain von der Goltz was a 
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"NOTHING OF IMPORTANCr 

By BERNARD ADAMS 

3J4 pages. With maps. $1.30 net. 



"N 



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Publishers, Robert M. McBride & Co., New York 



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